An unlucky swimmer was attacked by a great white shark off the California coast three weeks ago. It bit down and dragged Steve Bruemmer underwater. "I got myself back to the surface and started yelling for help, and that’s when all my luck changed."
A man who survived a shark attack off the coast of California last month is speaking out from his hospital bed.
Just three weeks ago, 62-year-old Steve Bruemmer was swimming off Lovers Point Beach in Pacific Grove, when he was attacked by a great white shark believed to be 20 feet long, which is about as big as a great white can get.
“I was bit right across my thighs and my abdomen. And it grabbed me and pulled me up and then dove me down in the water,” Bruemmer said.
Now, he’s pulling himself out of bed. With his wife by his side, he’s even able to stand and speak about the ordeal.
“Then of course, it spit me out. I got myself back to the surface and started yelling for help, and that’s when all my luck changed,” Bruemmer said.
Good Samaritans Aimee Johns and Paul Bandy heard Bruemmer’s cries for help. Footage from that day shows the couple paddling as fast as they could towards the stranger in distress, along with another surfer.
“The three of them, in the bloody water, got me up onto the surfboard and pulled me onto the beach. Heroes! How do you get in bloody water with maybe a shark circling?” Bruemmer said.
Incredibly, Johns is a nurse, and Bandy is a cop, so they knew every second counted in saving Bruemmer’s life.
“It was almost as if someone had taken a knife and just cut his leg in half,” Johns said.
On the shore, another stroke of good luck awaited.
“There were two ICU nurses and a doctor at the beach who took their own T-shirts and made tourniquets. I had tourniquets on my legs within five minutes to stop the bleeding,” Bruemmer said.
Bruemmer is now home from the hospital. He credits hospital staff and all of the good Samaritans for saving his life.
“I was in a tough spot, and they were so caring,” Bruemmer said, becoming emotional.
Bruemmer’s doctors credit his speedy recovery to being a triathlete and in good shape.
