Girl, 10, faces down shark at Fla. beach: ‘I fought a shark and won’

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (WPTV) - A 10-year-old Florida girl stunned everyone with her positive attitude after a shark took a bite out of her foot.

Jasmine Carney, 10, is one brave, cool kid, even with a badly injured foot from a shark attack at Hobe Sound Beach in Martin County, Florida.

“I fought a shark and won,” she said from her hospital bed.

The 10-year-old found herself in the presence of the shark Sunday afternoon.

“Something grabbed me, so I’m like, ‘Don’t you touch me,’” Jasmine said. “It looked pretty big, and it was gray. It hurt, so I’m like, ‘Kick it. Run away.’”

Jasmine’s adoptive grandmother, who goes by “Nana,” said she was amazed by the incident and how calmly the 10-year-old reacted.

“She came running up that beach, screaming, ‘Nana, something bit me’… I saw all the blood and went and got a lifeguard,” she said.

Jasmine was flown by chopper to Palm Beach Children’s Hospital, where her surgeon, Dr. Nir Hus, was equally surprised by her reaction.

“She was very positive from the get-go,” he said.

Hus described the severe injury Jasmine sustained to her right foot.

“There’s a piece missing,” he said. “Luckily for her, this was the only location that she was bitten.”

Jasmine says thinking of her 6-year-old brother, Jackson, is part of what’s helping her keep calm.

“He’s pretty curious, so I might as well stay calm because I know he wouldn’t want me to be scared because he’s the best little brother in the world,” she said.

Hus said Jasmine should make a full recovery in one to two months.