I nearly died in a shark assault — now I’m pregnant with my first youngster

Addison Bethea was about to begin her senior yr of highschool when an aggressive 9-foot shark bit her proper leg in June 2022.

She has recovered from practically dropping her life — and now she is getting ready to provide beginning to her first youngster.

“It’s loopy to be bringing a model new life into [the world] when mine was nearly gone,” Bethea, 18, advised “Good Morning America” on Wednesday. “It’s sort of loopy how that works.”

The northwest Floridian was scalloping at Keaton Seashore along with her brother, Rhett Willingham, when the shark grabbed her.

“It felt like somebody simply pulling you beneath water, like that scary sensation when somebody simply touches you within the water,” she recalled. “I didn’t really feel any ache or something your entire time it bit me apart from once I tried to pry it off with my fingers.”

After trying to poke the shark’s eyes and punch its nose, she screamed for assist.

Willingham, a firefighter and emergency medical technician, got here to her rescue.

“It’s nearly like while you’re in a dream, and also you’re attempting to scream in a dream, and it appears like nothing’s popping out. That’s what I felt like in that second, so I belted as loud as I may,” she continued.

Willingham finally freed his sister, who was airlifted to a Tallahassee hospital about 80 miles away.

Over the course of six surgeries, docs reconstructed a lot of her thigh and amputated her proper leg above the knee.

She now has a prosthetic leg.

The previous cheerleader’s speedy restoration allowed her to attend lessons in individual, take part within the annual homecoming celebration, and even stroll at her commencement in Could.

She stated she isn’t restricted from the actions she loves — she simply has to get artistic.

“I’m nonetheless doing the stuff I used to do, it’s simply little slower and it’s a studying course of, however I nonetheless do it my very own methods,” stated Bethea, who intends to pursue a level in bodily remedy.

On July 1, one yr after the assault, she returned to Keaton Seashore and the water with out concern.

“It didn’t make me unhappy or something,” she defined. “I didn’t get emotional. It was identical to [a] again to only regular sort of factor, hop again into routine.”

Wanting forward, Bethea plans to welcome her first youngster in December on the similar hospital that handled her post-attack.

Her story has served as each an inspiration and a warning to others who dare trespass in shark-infested waters.

“You possibly can’t simply be mad on the ocean while you’re in [sharks’] territory,” she stated. “They know what they’re doing. They know what they need to eat. You’ve simply acquired to be conscious of that.”