Cole Taschman is currently recovering from the second shark bite he’s received at Bathtub Beach. Photo: Ana Peci//GoFundMe
It seems like every week we see another story of a Florida resident having a run-in with a shark. Statistically, though, attacks are still relatively rare, so you can usually feel secure in the knowledge that lightning probably won’t strike twice. However, this week one man defied the odds and received a shark bite for the second time in his life, at the same beach, no less.
Cole Taschman was surfing at Bathtub Beach in Martin County when he was bitten by the critter, as WPTV reports. “I looked behind me and he was just like, on the back of me,” he said. “I just looked and I saw last-second him kind of going under and then he just kind of moved towards the side. I could kind of see his silhouette.”
The attack was carried out by what Taschman believes to be a seven- to eight-foot-long bull or tiger shark. After being bit, he caught a wave back to shore, where one of his friends fashioned a tourniquet out of a surfboard leash and drove him to the hospital. “I actually blacked out,” described Taschman. “I almost passed out from shock or losing enough blood. So Ana [Tachman’s girlfriend] is in the back slapping me, and Zach is driving like a madman trying to get me to the hospital. He’s dumping water on my head. They kept me awake, so thank God.”
Since then, Taschman has had two surgeries on three tendons and received 93 stitches, according to a GoFundMe started by Taschman’s girlfriend, Ana Peci. She added that he is currently wheelchair-bound and will be out of work for three months in order to recover.
Taschman told WPTV that the latest attack was much more severe than the first bite he received in 2013, though. “There’s no comparison,” Taschman said. “It’s like comparing an Olympic athlete to a high school athlete like, you know, the amount of trauma. It’s so hectic how much worse this one was.”
