WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT – Rachel Smith, from Newham, east London, was forced to fly home for emergency surgery after she was attacked by a shark off Rose Hall beach, in Montego Bay, Jamaica
A British tourist feared she was going to die after she was mauled by a shark on a Caribbean holiday.
Rachel Smith saw her ring finger hanging off and blood pouring from the wound after she was knocked backwards by the shark off Rose Hall beach, in Montego Bay, Jamaica. The 26-year-old woman was forced to fly home for an emergency operation, plastic surgery as the tendons and nerves in her ring and little fingers were ruptured.
Because she saw “blood pour everywhere” in the moments after the attack, Rachel said: “I honestly thought I was going to die,” an eight-word admission she gave as she recalled the horror today.
“I was in complete shock. My whole hand went numb so I thought my whole hand had been taken off. I feel grateful to be alive and so grateful to have my hand,” Rachel, of Newham, east London, said.
“There was so much blood coming out, I honestly thought I was going to die… I have a long road of recovery ahead but I have a positive attitude and I believe I will get through it.”
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Rachel, a pharmacologist, was away with her sister Lisa when the horror happened as she paddled in hip-height water off the beach. The metre-long shark bit her left hand and then hit her with its body.
Lisa, 28, saw the creature darting away – and led her sibling to safety while shouting out a warning to other holidaymakers enjoying a morning paddle. Rachel was rushed to hospital in an ambulance but there was no surgeon available for two weeks, so the sisters cut their holiday short and flew to Cork, Ireland, where their parents live.
Rachel underwent surgery there and now hopes to regain full movement in 18 months’ time. Lisa, though, said she and Rachel have suffered with nightmares since the attack.
Lisa, who is a procurement specialist, added: “We were so terrified. I honestly thought her fingers were gone – there was blood everywhere. At one point a vein burst and sprayed blood all over both of us. We were just crying and thinking she was going to die.”
The sisters say a flag on the beach was raised indicating it was safe to swim and doctors confirmed the bite was likely to belong to a reef shark. Rachel said: “I really did think I would die. The private hospital were only concerned with getting the payment before stopping the bleeding.”
A shark bit off a woman’s hands on a beach in the nearby in the Turks and Caicos Islands earlier this year. The 55-year-old Canadian woman had only strayed a few yards into the water when she was attacked in February.