OCEAN CITY, Md. — Maryland, despite being a mecca for beach lovers, has never had a documented shark incident, until now.
Jordan Prushinski, 12, was at Ocean City with her family on vacation.
She went into the ocean, swimming in about knee-deep water. But when she walked out of the water, she was limping with blood flowing from her leg.
“I didn’t really realize what was going on until I was on the beach and I was bleeding everywhere,” Jordan told WBRE.
She told the television station she thought a horseshoe crab hit her leg.
Melissa Prushinski, Jordan’s mother, said beachgoers, including an EMT and nurse, and a lifeguard tended to the girl, cleaning and bandaging the wound before her family took her to an area hospital.
An emergency room doctor confirmed Jordan’s injury was a shark bite, but they don’t know what type of shark it was, Melissa Prushinski told WBRE.
She was left with 42 stitches to close the 20 cuts on her leg.
WBRE reported that the Executive Director of the Shark Research Institute believed the shark was a black tip shark.
Ocean City Beach Patrol Capt. Butch Arbin told WRC that they believe it was an accidental bite by a shark feeding in the area.
Arbin said Maryland is the only state with a shoreline that didn’t have a report of a shark bite before Monday.
As for Jordan:
“I’m kind of like, wanting to stay out of the water for a little while, but something like this is rare and it’s even rarer to happen again,” she told WBRE.
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