GLEN ALLEN, Va. (WTVR) – A Virginia woman seriously injured in a shark attack along Florida’s Gulf Coast on Friday “continues to make progress,” according to an update from her church in Glen Allen.
Winns Baptist Church, of which Elisabeth Foley is a member, said she was on vacation with her family in Walton County, Florida, when she was attacked by a shark.
The 45-year-old wife and mother of three suffered serious injuries to her abdomen and lost her left hand.
Ryan Foley told the congregation Saturday that his wife was “hanging in there and has a super positive attitude,” according to the church.
“She took a good hit. Thank the Lord she is very tough and in excellent physical condition. “Her faith is what gets her through, along with many other blessings,” she wrote.
His family is accepting donations to help cover medical costs. Click here to make a donation.
“All donations will be given directly to her family to help cover medical and logistical expenses as Elisabeth begins the road to recovery,” church officials said.
Foley’s husband also wrote: “Please continue to pray.”
Lifeguards pull an injured woman from the beach after she was bitten by a shark in Walton County, Florida, on Friday.
The Virginia woman was the first person attacked by a shark in Walton County on Friday afternoon.
She was bitten by a shark near WaterSound Beach and suffered critical injuries to her abdomen and part of her arm had to be amputated, according to South Walton Fire Chief Ryan Crawford.
Less than two hours later, firefighters responded to another beach about 4 miles east of the first attack “following multiple reports of a teenager injured by a shark,” the sheriff’s office said.
Two teenage girls were in waist-deep water with a group of friends when they were attacked, the South Walton Fire District said.
“When first responders and officers arrived on scene, they found one of the women had significant injuries to her upper leg and hand,” firefighters said in an update. She was flown to a trauma center. The other teen had what officials described as minor injuries to one of her feet.
There is no way to know whether it was one shark or two separate ones involved in Friday’s attacks, but there are more sharks in the Gulf of Mexico than in previous years, Chapman said.
The timing of the attacks, mid-afternoon, was also an anomaly, Walton County Sheriff Michael Adkinson said. Sheriff’s officials often warn people to be on the lookout for sharks in the early morning and evening, their typical feeding times, he noted.
Also on Friday, in Hawaii, a woman was seriously injured in an apparent shark attack in the waters off the island of Oahu, authorities said.
Shark attacks are rare, experts say. Last year there were 69 unprovoked bites worldwide, and 10 of them were fatal, according to the International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida. That was higher than the recent average of six deaths per year.
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