MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — A Pittsburgh grandmother needed hundreds of stitches after she was bitten on the arm by a shark in Myrtle Beach, one of two attacks that day.
On Monday, Karen Sites and her 8-year-old grandson, Brian Sites, were wading in the ocean at South Carolina’s most famous beach when an unidentified shark grabbed Karen Sites’ arm.
“I just felt something, I guess, bite me and there was a shark on my arm,” Sites told The Associated Press.
According to WPDE, Brian Sites witnessed the attack just a few feet away.
“I couldn’t even see the shark coming up, but all I saw was the shark jumped up, and it didn’t even bite all the way, like I saw the movement of the tail go to the side, and then she screamed a little bit, and as soon as she touched it, it fell into the water,” he told WPDE.
Karen Sites was taken to a nearby hospital for surgery, where she received hundreds of stitches.
The attack happened on the first day of the Sites’ vacation, and Karen Sites said she wouldn’t let the attack stop her from visiting the beach in the future.
However, her grandson told WPDE that he wasn’t going back into the ocean.
“I’ll sit on the sand but I ain’t going in the water,” Brian Sites told the TV station.
While shark attacks are considered rare, a second shark attack was reported later that day, about a half-mile from where Karen Sites was bitten.
SHARK BITES: Two people were bitten by sharks on Monday, with the first bite at 75th Avenue North and the second shark bite just north of 82nd Avenue in Myrtle Beach, according to Master Corporal Thomas Vest. https://t.co/JrHBWJke5A pic.twitter.com/nJbKUe6RGp
— WPDE ABC15 (@wpdeabc15) August 18, 2022
The second incident was described as a more glancing bite to the leg, according to the AP. It’s unclear if the victim sought medical treatment.
Four shark attacks were reported in South Carolina last year.
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