MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. (WPTV) – Being bitten by a shark once is rare, but twice is almost unheard of.
That’s what happened to a Florida surfer last week.
“On this foot, I got a giant, giant cut there,” Cole Taschman described.
Taschman was recently released from the hospital.
“I almost lost the whole part of my ankle, and then on this foot, I don’t even know how I still have toes, to tell you the truth,” Taschman said.
The fish boat captain says he was surfing at Bathtub Beach
“It was a beast. It was a big one,” Taschman remembered.
He says a 7- to- 8-foot shark bit his legs.
“I looked behind me and he was kind of just like, ‘Ahhh,’ on the back of me, and I just looked and saw the last second of him,” Taschman added.
Taschman says he was able to get back to shore.
“They said I walked and I have three cut tendons,” Taschman described.
Back on the beach, Taschman met his two friends, girlfriend and a food truck operator who helped tie his legs with up with surfboard leashes in place of tourniquets.
Taschman was then rushed to the hospital.
“I actually blacked out,” Taschman said. “Ana’s in the back slapping me. Zack’s driving like a mad man getting to the hospital, pouring cold water on my head, keeping me awake, thank God.”
Two surgeries and 93 stitches later, Taschman says he’s recovering.
This was Taschman’s second shark bite.
“The first one was a tiny reef pup,” the surfer described.
The first bite happened at the same beach in 2013, but the damage this time was far worse.
“There’s no comparison,” Taschman said. “It’s like comparing an Olympic athlete to a high school athlete. The amount of trauma, it was so hectic, the amount of force this one was.”
Taschman says he hopes his story is a good reminder to never surf alone.
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