Callum Jones
A woman has detailed the moment a shark bit through her leg leaving her ‘bone exposed’ one year on from the attack.
While many Americans celebrated Independence Day over the weekend, such date for Tabatha Sullivent is a stark reminder of what happened to her last 4th July.
Sullivent was the victim of a series of an 'extremely rare' back-to-back shark attacks that took place on South Padre Island in Dallas, Texas.
Despite shark attacks being rare in Texas, and typically as a result of the animal mistaking people for prey, a shark attacked Sullivent while she and her then 15-year-old daughter were out past the sandbar.
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The shark bit off Sullivent's left calf, with the mother previously detailing her leg was 'pretty much gone'.
She explained the injury is 'all the way to the bone', however, the shark 'did not go through the bone'.
"If my husband didn’t jump into action and everyone else on the beach. If I didn’t have people pulling me out - not just to pull me out but jumping between the shark and me - I don’t think it would’ve stopped," Sullivent recalled.
In the months since the horrific attack, Sullivent has relearned to walk unassisted - though she still has no feeling in the sole of her foot.
Life is slowly getting back to normal for Sullivent and her family having returned to work, and they have even had their first trip back to a beach.
She told NBC DFW: "I have to remember that even with all the healing and forward motion and walking that I’m doing, what’s missing isn’t going to come back, so my leg won’t grow back. You know, it’s always going to be painful."
Sullivent is counting herself lucky that she survived the shark attack, despite the terrible ordeal she's been through in the past 12 months.
She added: "Even today, I look at my leg and I’m like, is that really my leg? You know, I’m up. I’m walking. I’m talking. I feel like me. I look like me. I think like me. But yet, I’m just a different version of me. So I just have to embrace it and that’s just how it’s going to be."
Despite the incident, officials tried to reassure the public at the time. South Padre Island fire chief Jim Pigg sai: "The shark was located at the south end of the island and was pushed out to deeper water.
"This is a very rare occurrence that happened on the beaches of South Padre. No further sightings or encounters in the last few hours, but we'll maintain vigilance."