Damiana Humphrey, Oklahoma 19 year old survives shark attack in waist deep waters while vacationing in Galveston, Texas. How teen’s instincts kicked in and why sharks are here to stay. But how common are they and how can one avoid them?
‘It happened so fast…’ A 19 year old Oklahoma woman has lived to tell how she survived a shark attack wading in waist deep waters in Texas waters last month.
On May 28, Damiana Humphrey and her family were vacationing in the Galveston area from Oklahoma.
Damiana says she and her siblings were about waist-deep in the water when her sister-in-law spotted something tan in the waves. As she turned around, the teen recalled ‘a shark grabbing ahold of my hand.’
Instinct fight to survive kicked in
‘As I was turning, a shark grabbed a hold of my hand. I looked down and there was a shark attached to my hand, so I guess I started punching it,’ the teen said according to FOX26. ‘That part is kind of blurry to me.’
Humphrey says the shark, which was between four to five feet, let go and swam away as she then proceeded to ‘quickly’ get her siblings and herself out of the water.
Her family, seeing the serious bite, immediately called 911 and first responders arrived to transport Damiana to hospital where she immediately underwent surgery on her hand.
She says four tendons were severed and she can’t use her hand for a number of weeks, meaning she’ll have to give up her patient care technician position for the summer.
‘They said I should make a full recovery with my physical therapy,’ Humphrey told FOX26. ‘Honestly, I’m just glad it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.’
Peter Davis Galveston Beach Patrol Chief says shark bites like the one Humphrey incurred are not common in the area. While around eight million people come through Galveston beaches throughout the year, shark bites are only reported once every couple of years.
Why sharks are here to stay and how to avoid a shark attack
‘It’s really rare for us to have shark bites here in Galveston. I’ve worked a few of them in my career and the ones I’ve seen were shark bites, not attacks. Meaning it was a case of mistaken identity where they latched onto a human and swam away it sounds like this may have been similar to that,’ Davis told FOX26.
Nevertheless, marine scientists say one shouldn’t discount the number of sharks that actually live in the water, their natural habitat.
Dr. Kesley Banks, Research scientist for Sportfish Center Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi says there are several species of sharks in the West Bay area and a healthy population of them.
‘Especially off Texas, the most common species are black tips, spinner sharks, bull sharks. Around the summer we see hammerheads and tiger sharks. They’re always there,’ she said.
She explained that the reason we see more shark encounters in summer months is because of the influx of people in the water.
Some tips from experts to avoid a shark encounter include:
- Shuffle your feet when walking through the ocean
- Avoid places where other water sources open up to the ocean, like a river flowing to the ocean. Here there will be an abundance of “prey fish”.
- Avoid swimming in or around a school of fish.
- Never go in the water if you’re bleeding
- If a shark does bite you, fight the shark off. Punching or pushing the shark in the nose and gills may get it to detach
