The tourist who had both her hands bitten off by a shark in Turks and Caicos had put them up to try to protect herself as the shark came at her a second time after first biting her thigh, her family said, calling it something that “can only be described as a nightmare.”
The 55-year-old Canadian was swimming off Providenciales, the main island in the Caribbean archipelago, in just “hip deep water” on Feb. 7 when the 7-foot bull shark attacked, her brother-in-law, Al Chevarie, detailed in an online fundraiser seeking help covering medical costs.
After bumping into her leg in the shallows, “the shark then circled around” and sank its jaws into her thigh, Chevarie wrote in both English and French of his brother’s wife, whom he did not otherwise identify.
“Not satisfied, the shark came back again and when she put both hands in front of her to protect herself, the shark cut off both of her hands, one at mid-forearm and the other at the wrist,” he continued.
The woman’s husband — a 30-year veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces — jumped in the water to help and “managed to wrestle away the shark and stayed between her and the shark until she walked out of the water and collapsed on the beach.”
The victim’s relative did not indicate whether or not she had been trying to take a photograph with the giant fish, as claimed by The Turks and Caicos Department of Environment and Coastal Resources.
Disturbing photos from the scene show panicked bystanders in swimwear surrounding the woman as she laid in pain in the sand attempting to hold cloths over her wrists to curb the bleeding.
She was rushed to a local hospital on the island for initial treatment but was then flown back to Canada for additional surgeries and treatment, said Chevarie, who is from Quebec.
“While on what was supposed to be a relaxing vacation, my sister-in-law and her husband, my brother, lived what can only be described as a nightmare,” he said.
His brother and sister-in-law’s lives have been “completely altered … in the blink of an eye,” he said.
Thompson’s Cove Beach was shut down but reopened Feb. 9.
The same day, two American tourists were attacked by a shark in the Bahamas.
Shark attacks are relatively rare off the coast of Turks and Caicos with only one unprovoked attack confirmed last year, according to the University of Florida’s International Shark Attack File, which tracks such data.
However In 2023, a 22-year-old Connecticut woman had her leg bitten off by a shark while snorkeling near a resort also on Providenciales island.
