A West Virginia teen is recuperating after being attacked by a shark over the weekend off the coast of North Carolina. Police say 14-year-old Blayne Brown, who was on vacation in North Topsail Beach, was in waist-deep water just after noon on Sunday when he was bitten twice. He sustained bites to his leg and ankle, reports WWAY. "I didn't know what bit me or anything. I just felt it and ran," the teen tells WECT. "Then I was screaming. My grandma was holding my hand, and I was like, 'I'm not going to be OK. I'm going to lose my leg.'"
Family friend Makinley Gore was in the water with Blayne at the time and even caught a glimpse of the shark's fin. "I heard ... Blayne saying, 'Ow, I got bit, I got bit,' but it was ... fuzzy," Gore tells WECT. Blayne says he was able to get out of the water on his own, which is when witnesses on land helped apply pressure to his wounds before first responders arrived to apply a tourniquet and transport him to Camp Lejeune Naval Hospital.
North Topsail Beach Police Chief William Younginer says that shark attacks in that area are extremely rare, and that beachgoers in general should be more concerned with riptides than with sharks. But he praised bystanders for their quick thinking, per Fox News: "They were wrapping a towel around him and stopping the bleeding, which is the right thing to do." WECT reports Blayne received a few staples to his leg to close up his wound, was released from the hospital as of Tuesday, and is headed back to West Virginia. (More shark attack stories.)
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