


A grandmother swimming with friends at an Australian beach was attacked by a great white shark — twice — before she managed to fend off the beast and swim to safety.
Pam Cook, 64, sustained multiple bites by the young shark in the Oct. 2 attack at Beachport Jetty and she needed 200 stitches to close up the wounds.
Cook was in the water with her swimming group when she looked down and saw a “basketball” wide jaw around her leg, she told The Advertiser.
“I started yelling “shark, shark!” and then it left,” she told The Advertiser.
However, the shark wasn’t done with her yet, coming back and sinking its sharp teeth into her left thigh.
“I was still composing myself [then] it came from underneath and attacked my left thigh,” she said.
The grandmother described the shark as “sort of chewing” her leg as her “life flashed before my eyes.”
She used her hand, which was injured, to fend off the beast before and swam 50 feet to a ladder, where she pulled herself up before collapsing.
Cook said she had to secure a flap of skin after getting out of the water.
“I didn’t have any pain, I didn’t feel it as it was happening,” she told the outlet.
A maintenance worker, Greg Rae, applied a tourniquet to her leg while others laid blankets and towels on her while they waited for paramedics to arrive.
She was rushed to Mt. Gambier Hospital, where she endured a 5.5-hour surgery after sustaining injuries to her thigh, hand, and ankle.
She spent a week in the hospital and still has a “brace on my arm and a moon boot on my foot,” according to The Advertiser.

Cook’s swimming group returned to the water two days after her attack. She hopes to join them again by Christmas, despite being timid after the attack.
“It’s just a wonderful group and I can’t imagine not being part of that group so I’m definitely going back in the water,” she told the outlet.