Beachport shark attack: Brave grandmother Pam Cook describes how she survived being mauled by a great white while swimming off South Australian beach
A grandmother has described how she mustered the courage to fight off a great white shark that attacked her twice as she went for a swim near her home in South Australia.
Pam Cook, 64, required 200 stitches after she was mauled by a juvenile great white during her morning swim at the Beachport Jetty on October 2.
She was in the water with about 20 members of the Beachport Sea Urchins and Slugs open water swimming group and was about 100 yards offshore when she felt something grab her ankle.
She looked down and saw the shark, with jaws as wide as “a basketball,” destroying her leg.
Australian grandmother Pam Cook (pictured) has described how she mustered the courage to fight off a great white shark that attacked her twice
As she spent her morning swimming next to the Beachport jetty in South Australia, the shark first latched onto her lower leg before attacking her a second time.
The 64-year-old South Australian bar manager pushed the shark away from her. Later she had to undergo more than five hours of surgery on her legs, arms and hand
‘I started shouting, ‘shark, shark!’ and then it went away and I was still composing (then) it came from below and attacked my left thigh,” she said The advertiser.
She described it as “kind of like chewing” on her thigh and admitted that “my life flashed before my eyes.”
The grandmother said she felt no pain when the shark bit her and managed to push the predator away with her hand, which was seriously injured.
“I had no pain, I didn’t feel it while it was happening,” said Ms Cook, a bar manager at the nearby Beachport Hotel.
Despite being covered in bites, Ms Cook managed to swim 15 meters to a ladder on the 772 meter jetty.
She then somehow pulled herself up the ladder before collapsing, bleeding profusely.
Faced with the choice of fighting or dying, the grandmother felt no pain despite the sharp teeth deep in her flesh, and managed to push the predator away
Locals covered her with blankets and towels and waited for paramedics. Maintenance worker Greg Rae applied a tourniquet to her leg.
Mrs. Cook remembers feeling increasingly cold but safer.
She required five-and-a-half hours of surgery for injuries to her thigh, ankle, hands and arms at Mount Gambier Hospital.
Despite experiencing flashbacks of the shark stuck to her leg, Mrs Cook plans to get back in the water with her swimming club before Christmas.
‘It’s just a beautiful group and I can’t imagine not being part of it, so I’ll definitely go back into the water again.’
Despite experiencing flashbacks of the shark latched onto her leg, Mrs Cook is incredibly intent on getting back in the water with her swimming club before Christmas.
READ MORE: What on earth bites a great white shark in half?
Victorian beachgoers were shocked to discover the remains of a four-metre-long great white shark washed up on shore with half of its body missing.
The body of the great white shark (pictured) was found by locals on Bridgewater beach on Tuesday