Having completed 20 dives, Carlson was an experienced diver and familiar with encountering sharks underwater. She explained the incident to NBC News, saying, “The second I hit the water — a shark almost — like it came from under the boat. I was facing the boat at this point. It started attacking my hands.”
“It’s biting my hands. And it’s kind of weird so I kind of just start hitting it to try and hit it off me,” she continued.
Kellie Carlson, Annabelle’s mother, was the one who realized the severity of the situation when her daughter was attacked.
“I was right there because I was getting my phone to take a picture of them jumping off. The minute she hit the water, the shark attacked her and I’m screaming yelling, ‘Somebody help. Help her!’” Kellie recounted.
The traumatic event lasted only 30 seconds, but for Annabelle Carlson, it felt much longer. “It’s almost a feeling of being helpless,” she shared. “It was hard. It was scary. It was completely painless. It felt like a tugging feeling, which was weird. It felt like I was playing tug of war a little bit … My adrenaline was so much to the point where, like, I didn’t even feel the second shark attack my leg.”
During this ordeal, Kellie was filled with dread, fearing for her daughter’s life.
“As soon as they pulled her up, I knew right then and there I was going to have to do everything I could to save her life. Because basically her leg was missing from her knee to her ankle,” she explained to NBC News.
“All the soft tissue from her knee to her ankle was gone, and it was just her tibia and fibula. I wasn’t sure she was going to make it because she was sheet white,” Kellie added.
To distract the sharks, individuals on the boat threw scuba tanks into the water, allowing Annabelle to be brought to safety. The species of the attacking sharks remains unidentified. Since the incident, the teenager has undergone seven surgeries and has had her leg amputated.