A North Carolina woman is praising God today after losing her arm in a shark attack last week in the Bahamas.
Tiffany Johnson was soaking up the last stop of a seven-day-cruise with her husband, James. They decided to go parasailing and snorkeling—just a 20-minute trip out to the reef.
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Accompanied by a guide and another couple, Tiffany and James explored the area. After a while, James headed back to the boat, and Tiffany stayed in for just a bit longer because there was a part of the reef she hadn’t seen.
Ten minutes later, the mother of three encountered a shark in the shallow reef.
“I felt like a tug or bump on my arm. I honestly thought I had bumped into something, that’s what it felt like,” Tiffany said. “I casually looked to the right and I was face to face with a shark, and he had my arm in his mouth.”
She could see the shark’s mouth clamped around her arm, but he wasn’t fighting her—until she began to yank her arm away from his clutch. She was only able to break free after the shark took off her arm from just below her elbow.
Tiffany quickly removed her snorkeling gear and screamed for help.
James, who was talking with the captain of the boat at the time, went into survival mode upon hearing his wife’s screams. He dove straight in and met her about halfway back to the boat.
“She was swimming with one hand. Her other hand raised above the water and she was praying the entire time while swimming back; it was just unreal. My biggest concern was to get her back to the boat, hoping and just praying the shark wasn’t following us,” he said.
The boat was covered in blood as Tiffany asked for a towel, and that it be wrapped as tightly as possible around her arm. James says his wife, who is a healthcare project manager, was “just so calm the whole time.”
After making it to the Island’s closest hospital, surgeons worked tirelessly to save as much tissue as possible. In the meantime, James was trying to navigate how they would get back to the U.S.
Their passports were on the cruise ship, and medi-evac to the U.S. requires patients to be delivered to the first point of entry—which would have been Miami—a 10-hour drive from their home and children. But somehow, everything worked out. The couple was evacuated to a hospital in Charlotte, N.C.—just 30 minutes from their home.
“There were just so many people working around the clock trying get me out of there, it was just overwhelming,” Tiffany recalled. “The support…it was totally God.”
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Doctors were able to salvage a lot of Tiffany’s arm, and she’s scheduled to have surgery next week in preparation for a prosthetic arm.
Tiffany says she’s thankful to be here and to be able to share her story. She hopes to use the shark attack and loss of her arm as a way to share God with others.
“I am convinced I have a testimony to share. I am expecting God to do great things. If a testimony is one way people’s lives can be changed, then I want that.”
She’s taking her wound and turning it into a powerful weapon for Christ! Prayers for continued health throughout this new journey for the Johnson family.
A friend has set up a GoFundMe page to help off-set some of the unexpected medical and travel expenses.
