Shark Week 2020 | 'I was Prey: Terrors From The Deep': Chuck Anderson recalls battling for life with a bull shark
'I was Prey: Terrors From The Deep' recounts stories of bravery of survivors who went up against deadly predator sharks in the oceans. It was just a normal day of swimming around in the ocean when their lives changed forever.
One day, Chuck Anderson went to Gulf Shores, Alabama. He had just swum a few metres in when he felt some bump. He says, "It was just stunning. It was like a bulldozer, it was a bull shark. The shock of it almost knocked the breath out of me. I was screaming, 'get away'."
Chuck tried to make his way to the beach, but the shark wasn't going to let go easily. "I tried to get away to the beach and I saw it directly coming at me. All of a sudden, it was latched on to my right arm. The first thing to hit the sand, was my right shoulder. I kept praying to God, saying please help me. I was in a foggy area, because I was losing sense of my surroundings. Images of my wife and kids kept coming to my mind. My arm was still in the shark's mouth, and it kept pulling me to the surface. I started gasping for air. I tried to pull it out,and the next thing I remember, the shark started pushing me towards water. I kept thinking this is the end. I rolled over, legs came under the shark. I could feel the pain and pressure of the teeth being on my right arm. I tried to jerk my arm back, I felt the teeth strip down on my arm, and I saw blood around me."
He began to fight back as he was determined to get back to his wife and kids. "My wife saw me and said oh my god, you don't have an arm!"
He was taken to the nearest hospital and says he couldn't remember anything for the next five days. They were able to save his elbow, but that's about it. A few weeks later, he returned to the same beach for a swim race and he won that day.
'I was Prey: Terrors From The Deep' airs on Discovery Channel, Saturday at 9 pm.
