A woman revealed what happened to her arm in the aftermath of a gruesome shark attack. During a sit-down interview on This Morning, which airs on ITV in Australia, scientist Helen Fairlamb said she was freediving with friends near the cost of Hawaii when a reef shark took a sizeable chunk out of her in November 2024. It’s been more than a year and a half since her bloody encounter in the water, yet the scars of the injury are still difficult to ignore. (Viewer discretion is advised.)
Scientist had three surgeries after the shark attack
Fairlamb, who wore an outfit with a sleeve long enough to cover the injury at first, revealed what remained of her arm.
“There’s a bit missing, half my bicep,” she said as she pulled up her sleeve.
At the time of the attack, the scientist could tell that something was off with one of the reef sharks while she was in the water.
“I just noticed some movement out of the corner of my eye,” she recounted. “The reef shark had whipped around quite quickly. Her style of swimming changed completely and she just very directly moved efficiently like a bullet towards me. I knew that it was likely going to end with a bite.”
While getting bit by a shark would make anyone panic, Fairlamb remembered her training and stayed as calm as possible. She hit the shark on the nose, gills, and eyes, which made the animal let go. However, the freediver understood that she would need to get out of water quickly.
“The shark released and I was like, right, next step, oxygen, up to the surface,” she recalled, “and then the next step, get out of the water because there’s blood in the water.”
After reaching her kayak, her colleagues helped to transport her to the shore. They told her that nearly a dozen other sharks had honed in on the area due to the amount of blood that was spilled. However, the trip took 80 minutes, and by the time she had reached a plane that would fly her to a hospital, she began to “fade out.”
Doctors at the ICU performed three surgeries on her arm before she was flown to another hospital in England to see if it needed to be amputated. Luckily, the arm healed properly enough that the procedure wasn’t necessary.
Looking back, the conservationist doesn’t blame the shark for the attack, saying that it was likely a pregnant female”that was protecting her territory and her future young. She notes that she was swimming in an area where sharks likely didn’t see any humans. And despite the attack, she can’t wait to rejoin them in the water.
