LEWIS CENTER, OH — Just 11 days after being bit by a Bull Shark near Hilton Head, South Carolina, 14-year-old Olentangy Orange freshman to-be Reagan Readnour was back in the pool practicing the sport she loves.
“My cousin convinced me that it would be fun to go in,” Readnour recalls of the family vacation. Readnour isn’t a fan of going in the ocean and didn’t do so on a trip to Florida just weeks earlier.
Within 30 minutes of being in the Atlantic Ocean, the estimated 4-5 foot Bull Shark bit her – not once, but twice. She never saw the animal.
“I started screaming,” she says. “I turned my leg over and my cousin saw the blood. I kind of balled up. It burned. It was a real sharp pain. It felt like someone took a knife and stabbed you a bunch.”
Fortunately, her leg is still fully intact. However, doctors say the flesh wounds could take up to five months to heal and it could be a year the nerves to be back to normal.
She says she realizes she’s lucky to escape with minimal injuries and has been able to laugh about the scary incident with her family, which has given her a new nickname – “Shark Bait.”