“I thought it was a big fish”

DALLAS – A North Texas couple was among four people injured in a shark encounter on South Padre Island on Independence Day, July 4.

The most seriously injured victim told FOX 4 that the shark attacked her while she and her daughter were behind a sandbar. She says the shark then followed her into shallow water and her husband fought it off.

At her hospital in McAllen, Tabatha Sullivent of Celina recalls her terrifying escape from a shark attack in the waters off South Padre Island.

“I turned around and saw something dark in the water. I thought it was a big fish and I tried to kick it away. Then it grabbed me,” she recalls. “I think it let go of me and I was able to swim to the beach with one leg and my arms. It didn’t grab me there. Then I got closer to the beach and people started pulling me out. My husband got me first. But then he dropped me because the shark was chasing me.”

The shark bit off Tabatha’s left calf.

“My leg is pretty much gone,” she said. “Today it was flushed out. It went down to the bone. It didn’t go through the bone.”

*WARNING: Some images may be too graphic for some viewers.*

Tabatha’s husband, Cary Sullivent, came to her aid when the shark followed her into the shallow water.

Cary is now lying at his wife’s bedside, recovering from the bites on his leg sustained during his fight with the shark.

“If my husband and everyone else on the beach hadn’t stepped in immediately. If there hadn’t been people pulling me out – and not just trying to pull me out, but jumping between me and the shark – I don’t think it would have stopped,” she said.

Kyle Jud of Oak Point watched the Sullivents’ shark attack from the beach.

“While they were treating her, they tried to put a tourniquet on her,” he recalled. “While they were treating her, the shark was right in the first belly. Probably in knee-deep water.”

Jud began recording and followed the shark down the beach with DPS on a boat and helicopter.

According to the city of South Padre Island, four people were injured.

The city described the situation as “unprecedented” and said the last shark bite there was five years ago.

“Seeing South Padre with so many people and no one in the water was surreal,” Jud said. “I’ve never experienced anything like it. It was like a movie or something. So, so wild.”

Tabatha tells FOX 4 she can move her toes a little, but the level of mobility is still uncertain. Her next surgery is Tuesday.