California shark attack survivor recalls 'tussling' with animal and screaming for help
The man who was bitten multiple times by a shark while swimming near San Diego, California, earlier this month recalled “tussling” with the animal for seconds and swimming through bloody water to safety.
Caleb Adams, 46, was swimming in Del Mar, California, with 18 members of an open water swim group when he felt “a strong hit to my body” on June 2.
“I knew I had been hit by a shark. I tussled with the animal for what was seconds,” he told NBC News correspondent Gadi Schwartz in an exclusive interview aired Tuesday on “TODAY.”
“The second time I struck the animal and I felt a softer tissue. I am going to speculate that that was inside the shark’s mouth. And I had several cuts on my hand and wrist,” he recalled.
That’s when he yelled “just two clear words”— “help” and “shark.”
His swimming buddy Kevin Barrett heard his cries for help.
“You know that’s a real scream,” Barrett recalled. By the time he reached Adams, the shark was gone.
“When I was swimming him in, the blood was just pouring out of his chest,” he recalled. Once at shore, “we could really see the traumatic extent of his injuries and it was not pretty.”
A lifeguard kept his hand under Caleb’s chin and urged him to not look down as he was taken to an ambulance.
The shark bites occurred about 100 yards offshore from the Beach Safety Center at 17th Street, the city of Del Mar said in a statement.
He was taken to Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla with bites to his left hand, his left arm and his torso, the city of Del Mar said. Nearly the entire stretch of beach was closed after the attack.
A member of Adams' swimming group that trains weekly, Jenna Veal, was right behind him when the incident happened.
She previously told NBC’s “TODAY” show she heard him scream for help.
“He punched it in the face. He punched it in the nose,” she said. “I do know he had a gash on his hand from a shark’s tooth.”
Adams said he's feeling strong despite the ordeal, now with stitches and scars lining his arms and crossing his torso from the attack.
Returning to the beach with his wife about two weeks after the attack, he said: “It’s emotional being here, without question.”
“I have a beautiful community to lean on and I’m very thankful,” he added.
Experts say that strip of beach near Del Mar has become nursery for young great white sharks.
Unprovoked shark attacks are rare: There were just 36 in the U.S. last year, including two in California, one of them fatal, the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File said.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
