A man who needed 91 stitches after being mauled by a monster 300 pound shark while on holiday insists he hasn’t been put off the ocean.
Curtis Miller, 30, had been on a fishing trip in South Africa for just three days before the terrifying creature attacked him.
Mr Miller, from Barry Island, described how he was taking the hook out of a ragged tooth shark when it latched onto his arm and sunk its teeth into his flesh.
The father-of-two was rushed to hospital where he received 91 stitches and had to have three arteries tied.
Mr Miller stayed in the hospital overnight before being discharged the following morning.
In the moments after the attack Mr Miller told the South Wales Argus he didn’t feel any pain but realised he was hurt when he saw blood pouring from his arm.
Despite feeling scared at the time Mr Miller insists he will carry on fishing and believes what happened to him was just a ‘freak accident’.
‘People don’t need to be put off by my accident. The trip is a lifetime opportunity, and I will most definitely return,’ he said.
Although Mr Miller felt calm after the ordeal his mother, Helen Miller, 60, said when she heard the news she had a ‘breakdown’ and was ‘beside herself’.
‘I didn’t know whether he’d lost a leg or lost an arm when he phoned, all I could see was his face and he went “mum I’ve got something to tell you, I’ve been bitten by a shark.”
‘It’s your worst nightmare,’ she recalled.
Ms Miller added how although her son was lucky not to lose his arm he was more concerned about missing the last days of the trip and his tattoo being damaged.
Mr Miller’s two young children, aged nine and three, were amazed to learn that their father had been bitten by a shark and had been talking about it ‘nonstop’.
Mr Miller arrived back in the UK yesterday and is due to receive further treatment.
It comes after in February two American tourists were left injured after being mauled in a reported shark attack while swimming at a popular Bahamas resort.
Both women were swimming off Bimini Bay on Friday evening when they were attacked, with one said to have suffered serious injuries.
The two travelers had to be airlifted to the nearby island of New Providence to receive advanced medical care, according to local media.
The Royal Bahamas Police Force in Bimini has since launched an investigation into the attack.
‘Initial reports indicate that the victims, both U.S.A. residents, sustained injuries while swimming in the waters at Bimini Bay,’ police reported in the immediate aftermath.
‘One of the victim’s injuries is listed as serious. Investigations are ongoing,’ the report continued, without mention of the tourists’ progress in recovery.