MIAMI — After more than a week of recovering from a shark bite, a Texas woman has been released from a Miami hospital.
Lindsay Bruns, 35, is from Flower Mound, Texas and was visiting the Florida Keys with her husband and their two daughters on June 29 when the attack happened, WTVJ reported.
According to a report from Florida Fish and Wildlife, obtained by WTVJ, Bruns jumped into the water from a boat near Summerland Key, and was in approximately 10 feet of water when her husband saw “lots of splashing and water coming over into the vessel, a splash he described as too big for his wife just jumping in the water.”
Bruns emerged from the water screaming, “Help!” moments later, and her husband, Luke Bruns, told the Miami Herald that he saw nothing but blood in the water. Luke dove in and helped her to the boat before making a makeshift tourniquet and calling 911. The couple’s young daughters saw the whole thing.
“They were bawling. They were screaming, they saw it all,” Luke told WPLG. “It was very traumatic. Once we got on the boat going I told them, ‘Girls, you need to pray for momma.’”
Lindsay lost a lot of blood and was flown to a hospital, receiving a blood transfusion mid-flight, WPLG reported.
Doctors told Lindsay that she would survive, but she would need hours of reconstructive surgery to save her leg, CBS News reported.
Luke Bruns told the Miami Herald that the shark attack won’t keep them from returning to their favorite vacation spot: “We may be fishing from the boat a little more and doing a little less swimming and diving for a while, but we do expect that we will continue to make our annual trips.”
The family has started an online fundraiser to raise money to help pay for hospital bills, surgery, and the expense of temporarily living out of state.