People like Bethany Hamilton

Bethany Meilani Hamilton-Dirks(born February 8, 1990) is an American professional surfer who survived a 2003 shark attack in which her left arm was bitten off but who ultimately returned to professional surfing. She wrote about her experience in the 2004 autobiographySoul Surfer: A True Story of Faith, Family, and Fighting to Get Back on the Board. In April 2011, the feature filmSoul Surferwas released. She now has a new movie called, Unstoppable, where she shows the struggles and happiness of her family. Hamilton has been in the WSL league for quite a few years. Her best friend, Alana Blanchard, is also a pro surfer.

On October 31, 2003, Hamilton, aged 13 at the time, went for a morning surf along Tunnels Beach, Kauai, with her best friend Alana Blanchard, Alana's father and brother, Holt and Byron, when a 14-foot-long (4.3 m) tiger shark attacked her, severing her left arm just below the shoulder. The Blanchards helped paddle her back to shore, then Alana's father fashioned a tourniquet out of a rash guard and wrapped it around the stump of her arm. She was rushed to Wilcox Memorial Hospital. By the time she arrived there she had lost over 60% of her blood and was in hypovolemic shock. A doctor living in a hotel nearby raced to the rescue. Her father, who was scheduled to have knee surgery that same morning, was already there, but she took his place in the operating room. Bethany was back in the water within three to four weeks of the attack. During subsequent media interviews, she confirmed that she felt normal when she was bitten and did not feel much pain from the bite at the moment of the disaster, but felt numb on the way to the hospital.