I was pretending to be a mermaid in shallow water when a shark tore my leg off – only my dad’s heroic actions saved me

I was pretending to be a mermaid in shallow water when a shark tore my leg off – only my dad’s heroic actions saved me

A TEEN was pretending to be a mermaid in shallow water when a shark tore her leg off - and the only thing that saved her was her dad's heroic actions.

Paige Winter was "playing mermaids" with her dad's girlfriend's seven-year-old son at Fort Macon beach in North Carolina when the frightening shark attack took place.

The then-17-year-old - whose father heroically punched the shark five times in the nose before pulling her to safety in June 2019 - lost her leg in the horrific incident.

Now, at age 20, Paige has recounted her experience on LadBibleTV’s No Filter .

Paige told the news outlet the shark attack happened on "just another beach day" as Fort Macon State Park was a typical hangout spot for her family.

She explained how her family "were all having a really good time" when her dad's girlfriend's little son, Kale, requested to play mermaids - something which Paige was excited to do.

“I leaned backwards to kind of flop backwards onto my back, and then swim backwards and come back up like a mermaid, but once I had gone backwards, I had stepped on something and then the chaos began," Paige said.

She soon realized that the thing she felt underwater was neither her dad, Kale, nor the boy's mom.

"Everybody's above the water ... what is this?" she recalled thinking to herself, admitting she first suspected the thing she felt to be her dad joking with her.

Paige continued: "I felt a sharp pain on my ankle, and then nothing else. It felt like forever.

"I felt like I was under there for 20 minutes but it was more like 20 seconds. It wasn’t long at all."

Although her dad pulled her out of the water alive, he wasn't able to help her avoid sustaining injuries.

From what Paige remembers, her dad saw two fins in the water as he pulled her to the shore.

She added: "I still had the whole leg attached to me, it was really, really awful.

"You could see bone, you could see teeth marks in the bone."

The teen was quickly rushed to a nearby hospital by helicopter where she was later pictured recovering.

Paige, who admitted to feeling "distressed" en route to the hospital, said: "I didn’t feel much pain, honestly. I had never had a broken bone or anything before this.

"So I was just kind of sitting there and I felt the way that TV static looks, when your foot falls asleep, that’s how I felt.

"I don't think I was bleeding much then, but they were still clearly concerned about me."

Paige was left with life-changing injuries, with surgeons forced to amputate her left leg above the knee and perform several operations to repair her hands after she was savaged by a bull shark while swimming.

But last year Paige, who nearly died from her injuries, spoke out for the first time about the forgiveness she showed to the endangered species who she claims are “freaking cool."

Speaking ahead of a National Geographic Wild documentary that tells the teen's remarkable tale of survival, the 19-year-old recalled one of the first things she said after being attacked.

“Don’t be mad at that shark,” she told her dad. "It’s just being a shark, it’s doing its shark thing.”

Paige has since revealed she is now campaigning to save the species.

“Sharks are good people,” she told the I. I’ve always been an environmentalist, so it didn’t make much sense to me to just switch up how I felt. They are very misunderstood.”

” I don’t think I’m all that special. I think I’m just a chick, living. I’ve always been calm about the whole thing.”

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