Shark attack survivor Steve Bruemmer recounts how beautiful day turned into HORRIFYING ordeal
Steve Bruemmer, a great white shark attack survivor from California, is making headlines after recounting the terrifying story of how he was bit by the shark and survived the attack. The water enthusiast was swimming off Lovers Point Beach in Pacific Grove, close to Monterey, when the incident happened on June 22. Bruemmer, 62, a native of Monterey, who had just been released from the hospital, recalled the dangerous encounter.
Bruemmer reportedly said to KSBW in a video broadcast by the Natividad Medical Center on Wednesday, July 13, that it was "really unlucky that the shark bit me." The day before the attack was "such a beautiful day, there was no wind, the ocean was flat, there were no waves, it was so calm," Bruemmer said from his hospital bed.
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A shark attacked Bruemmer shortly after he started swimming. The retired college professor recalled, "I was about 150 yards from the beach when wham! I don't even know exactly what happened, but it was just it … was just well … turns out I was bit ferociously by a shark right across my thighs and my abdomen."
"It grabbed me and pulled me up and then dove me down in the water and then, of course, it spit me out," Bruemmer recalled. The survivor thought the shark assumed he was a seal, but after determining he wasn't "food", it let go of him.
Unfortunately, the shark seemed to be debating making another pass. "It was looking at me, right next to me," Bruemmer said. "I thought it could bite me again so I pushed it with my hand and I kicked at it with my foot and it left," he added.
The triathlete and swimmer in danger yelled for assistance at that precise moment, and three rescuers, two paddleboarders, and a surfer ran to his rescue. The rescuers then transported Bruemmer to land using a surfboard.
The thankful man praised the brave trio, saying, "The three of them in the bloody water got me up onto the surfboard and pulled me into the beach. How do you get into the bloody water, with maybe a shark circling beneath you to save a stranger? They’re amazing."
After being taken by ambulance to the Natividad Medical Center in Salinas, Bruemmer underwent immediate surgery and received 28 units of blood. The beachgoer was extraordinarily lucky, according to experts, as the shark missed severing a vital artery by just a millimeter.
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"It could've been much, much worse," Nicholas Rottler, a trauma surgeon at the hospital, told KSBW-TV. "He could’ve not made it out of the water." Later, Bruemmer praised all the heroes who had contributed to his survival. The emotional survivor remarked, "I'm going home now. I want to thank Natividad, and the good Samaritans, and the people on the beach and that lead-footed ambulance driver."
"Without all of you, I don't make it," he continued. "And oh, the blood donors — thank you so much. I'm going home. I'm gonna recover and I'm gonna be OK — thanks to you all." The video ends with the former professor being wheeled out of the hospital and receiving praise from the staff for his full recovery.