A Georgia man says he fought off a shark that continued attacking him after he helped his pregnant fiancée reach safety during a terrifying encounter at a Florida beach.
As reported by Fox5 Atlanta, Jacorey High was swimming at Daytona Beach Shores on Sunday when a shark estimated to be about four feet long bit his foot and ankle. But High said his first concern wasn’t his own injuries.
“I realized right away it was a shark because of the way it bit down on my foot,” High said. “But I was more worried about getting my fiancée out of the water.”
High said he immediately pushed his pregnant fiancée toward shore before thinking about himself.
“As soon as I got bit, I kept shoving her toward the beach area,” he said. “That’s when I started thinking about myself when I saw she was on the sand.”
What happened next, he said, was even more frightening.
“Then it came up to try to get my arm,” High recalled. “So I had to push it away from me. I ran, and it tried to get my other leg.”
High eventually made it back to shore, where emergency crews treated him before transporting him to a nearby hospital. He later underwent surgery after suffering significant injuries to his foot and ankle.
“A whole lot of blood just pouring out of my foot,” he said. “It ripped all the tendons in my foot and my ankle.”
Doctors expect High to face a lengthy recovery, with rehabilitation likely lasting several months before he can return to work.
Despite the ordeal, High said he doesn’t regret the split-second decision he made to protect his family.
“That’s the person I love the most,” he said of his fiancée. “I would rather see her safe than me.”
The couple’s unborn baby was not injured.
According to the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File, Florida consistently records more shark bites than any other state, though attacks remain rare relative to the millions of people who enter the ocean each year. Most bites involve smaller coastal shark species and are not fatal.
Wildlife officials encourage swimmers to avoid entering the water at dawn or dusk, stay away from schools of fish, and leave the water immediately if sharks are spotted nearby.
