A grandmother was attacked by a shark - just moments after telling her grandson not to worry about the ocean predators.
Karren Sites, 55, from Pennsylvania, was on holiday with her husband and their grandson in South Carolina when they decided to visit Myrtle Beach in August.
Her eight-year-old grandson Britan had been keen on entering the sea but was worried there were would be sharks.
He kept asking grandmother Karren for reassurance there weren't going to be any.
Karren tried to reassure him as she said to Britan: "'Oh, don't be afraid. It is so rare that anybody ever gets bit by a shark", she told The Independent.
The grandmother then decided to get into the sea and prove to her eight-year-old grandson Britan there were in fact no sharks - and that the sea was safe.
But Karren was soon injured after she felt a strong pain in her arm - which she assumed was a jellyfish sting.
She said: "I felt a sharp kind of intense pain on my right arm. And my first thought was, 'It's anything but a shark'."
The shocked 55-year-old looked down at her arm and saw a shark sinking into her arm.
She continued: "I looked down and there was a shark attached to my arm."
After the shark sunk its teeth into Karren's arm it finally let go off her - and she was able to make it back to the shore.
But as she returned tourists were in shock at the blood coming from her arm.
Fortunately, a hospital worker was nearby, as she helped her wash her arm with a bottle of water before the grandmother was driven to an emergency department.
She was admitted to hospital with damage to her ring finger and was warned the nerve tendons in her arm may never recover.
Karren was released from hospital the next day as their family holiday continued after booking a week in South Carolina.
However, the grandchildren chose not to go in the beach during the rest of their stay.
The recent shark mauling in the US comes just weeks after the Tracking Sharks website revealed there have been on average 36 reported shark attacks in the US alone.
With 20 attacks in Florida, six in New York, five in South Carolina, and one each in California and Hawaii - there have also been 65 attacks globally.
