When faced with a circumstance that poses a threat to one’s life, having an agile mind is advantageous.
The fact that this young man fortunately possesses it allowed him to rescue her sister from the jaws of a near-death experience.
On June 30, a 17-year-old girl named Addison Bethea was scalloping on Florida’s Keaton Beach when a surprise visitor joined her.
‘And the next thing I know, something is grabbing hold of my leg, and I think that’s not right. The teen told Good Morning America,’ And then I look and it’s a big old shark.
Fortunately, Addison’s knowledge of shark attacks sprang to mind because of an Animal Planet broadcast. She was fastened in a position where she couldn’t grab the shark’s nose, even though she understood she should do so in the case of an injury.
The courageous teen fought the shark in spite of her helpless predicament. She attempted to remove her legs with just her bare hands.
Rhett Willingham, Addison’s older brother, leaped into the lake to save her as soon as the water turned red.
She came back up, and Rhett recalled seeing ‘like, the blood and everything, and I saw the shark.’
‘So after that, I dove over, grabbed her, and shoved them all in an effort to break them apart. He simply kept coming.
I grabbed her, kicked him as I swam backward, and cried for help,’ he continued, trying to describe what he had done at that critical moment.
Rhett, 22, a firefighter and emergency medical technician for Taylor County, is fortunate to be prepared for emergency scenarios.
He beat and kicked the shark mercilessly to save his sister, and when it eventually let go of Addison, he grabbed her and threw her on a passing stranger’s boat.
The quick-thinking brother then used the rope from the boat to make a 4-foot tourniquet, which he tied around his sister’s right upper thigh to stop the bleeding.
After that, Addison was evacuated to the closest hospital, where her condition was labeled as ‘critical.’
Despite what had transpired, they were nonetheless grateful she had lived through that terrifying time.