Dan Seddon
16-year-old Annabelle Carlson has explained exactly what she did after two oceanic predators tried to eat her.
In conversation with Nexstar's KDVR, the Aspen local said she was on a family holiday in Belize 13 months ago when the frightening event occurred.
"I would never anticipate I would be attacked by a shark, but here I am," she reflected. "We really loved to travel as a family, and that was like our big, fun vacation of the summer."
Three days into their Central American sojourn, Annabelle and her mother were scuba diving at 120 feet when they spotted 'three or four sharks' and 'some really cool fish'.
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When they both returned to the surface, the teenager decided to jump off the top deck of the tourist boat with her siblings, but that's where things immediately went pear-shaped.
"I decided to go first. When I jumped and hit the water, a shark came from under the boat and started biting my hands," she recalled as she came 'face-to-face' with the oceanic animals.
Fortunately, Annabelle's survival instincts saw her punch the shark approximately six times.
"The other dive group was still in the water as this was happening and they threw me a life ring," Annabelle continued. "My hands were pretty mangled so I couldn't really grab it but I did a loop with my arms. And as they were pulling me in, another shark came and bit my right leg."
As she fought for her life, the people on the boat attempted to help by launching heavy oxygen tanks at the two attackers in an attempt to disrupt their frenzy.
"And that's when we realised that the boat itself, the first aid kit, didn't actually have the right medical equipment for life-saving measures," she revealed. "So this guy — who I'm so thankful for — that was a tourist in our dive group threw me a tourniquet that he had.
"They put that on my leg to stop the bleeding."
If the youngster had allowed herself to fall unconscious in that moment, she might not have been here to tell her harrowing story. Incredibly, Annabelle forced herself to stay awake for 90 minutes as the boat returned to land, where an emergency helicopter was waiting to take her to the hospital.
"The hardest thing I've ever had to do in my life was stay awake," she said. "Because at that point I didn't really realise that my falling asleep would mean falling unconscious and possibly not making it out."
In the end, the teen's gnarly injuries resulted in a 'one-in-a-million' mycobacterial infection that rendered half of her right leg unsaveable.
Dr Julia Sanders of Children's Hospital Colorado, where Annabelle was treated, said: "We’ve had to take her back for multiple surgeries because of that infection. And so that has just set her back again and again."
However, this hasn't stopped her as Dr Sanders continued: "She is already back running on a prosthetic limb, working out. She does pilates. She's just an incredible kid. She's been back scuba diving.
"So really just a reminder of how resilient kids can be."