A woman’s physical condition may have saved her during a Memorial Day weekend shark attack.
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Maria Korcsmaros surviving a large shark bite is “remarkable”, doctors say. She is expected to make a full recovery.
A reason for the increase in shark sightings along the Southern California coast has been said to be the El Nino conditions which began previous year.
Hospital officials said Korcsmaros was attacked when she was swimming about 150 yards (about 137 meters) off the coast, training for a half-Iron Man competition scheduled for July 10 in Canada. “Remarkably right now her nerves are all functioning”, said Dr. Philip Rotter, director of orthopedic surgery at the medical center.
Doctors will seek to prevent any infections from the bite, which they said left teeth marks from Korecsmaros’ shoulder to her pelvis. She will be hospitalized for at least another week.
All beach waters closed following a shark attack Sunday afternoon off the coast of Corona del Mar have reopened as of Wednesday morning, according to Newport Beach city lifeguards.
But no matter how terrifying tales of shark bites can be, experts say attacks are infrequent, Reuters reported.
Korcsmaros was swimming in a wetsuit just outside buoys marking a protected swimming area near a boat route.
Lifeguards and city officials could not confirm a shark bit the mother of three Sunday, with no sightings or witnesses to the attack, but moved to protect beachgoers.
A stretch of the coastline was evacuated and closed Sunday, but was partly reopened on Tuesday, officials said.
Surfers, swimmers and others were allowed to return to a mile-long stretch of water from Balboa Pier to a surfing spot known as the Wedge, Newport Beach spokeswoman Tara Finnigan said.
A 13-year-old boy was also bitten by a shark over the weekend in waist-high water at Neptune Beach, Florida.
But this year could surpass the number as shark populations recover from historic lows in the 1990s, while the world’s human population has grown and rising temperatures are leading more people to go swimming, Burgess said. Beachgoers actually face a greater risk of being killed by a sand collapse.
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In New Jersey, the last fatal shark attack was in 1916, an incident that served as inspiration for the famous hollywood blockbuster “Jaws” – a movie that culturally classified the beasts as man-eaters.
