INDIAN HARBOUR BEACH, Fla. – The woman who had a chunk of her calf bitten off by a shark off a Central Florida coast earlier this month discussed the attack on Friday, detailing the ordeal.
In an interview with WKMG-TV, 38-year-old Amy Tatsch described the attack on May 15 during a family beach trip near Ponce de Leon Park on Melbourne Beach.
After looking at the width of the bite, Tatsch said her doctor estimates the shark was about 7 feet long. Tatsch believes that the shark responsible was likely a bull shark.
"(I) can't get up and around, but it's so much nicer to be home and be able to be outside," Tatsch told WKMG-TV at her Indian Harbour Beach home.
Tatsch, a mother of six, has been in the hospital for the last two weeks getting multiple surgeries after the shark attacked her while she was boogie boarding with her brother.
"We caught a couple of waves. He caught one and I drifted down a little farther with the current so I was a little farther away and the next wave that was coming up, I was ready," she said. "I kicked off with my right leg to give me some momentum to ride in and that's when I got bumped."
Tatsch said her Achilles tendon was torn and her calf was a couple of inches from being taken off completely.
"It was a really hard bump and then seconds after I felt my leg being torn and then I felt the motion of something big swimming away," she said.
There are no lifeguards in the area where the shark attack occurred and Tatsch's brother told WKMG-TV his family and other beachgoers brought Tatsch to shore.
Officials haven't said what type of shark attacked Tatsch.