A woman was snorkelling and soaking up the wonder of a coral reef teeming with life when she crashed into “something” while out and about.
“I turned to my right to see what I’d hit and I was eye to eye with the shark,” Tiffany Johnson, of North Carolina, told Fox News Digital about the 2017 attack in the Bahamas.
“The moment I felt myself get hit was when he literally grabbed me by the arm and my arm was in his mouth.”
She fought back, overcoming the urge to give up, and eventually managed to free herself, but the shark had “completely severed” her arm, leaving behind a “mangled stub”.
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Tiffany Johnson lost her arm in a shark attack, but that didn’t stop her from getting back in the water and snorkeling for the first time at Ocean Cove in Aruba. (Tiffany Johnson)
Johnson said flashbacks of his past life played out in his head like a slideshow, and his immediate reaction was “defeat.”
“It felt like my body was freed, like it had given up,” Johnson said, crediting God for that “sudden strength.”
“I remember thinking, ‘No, it’s not going to take my life,'” Johnson said, as he did his best to escape the shark’s clutches.
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“And then it was his turn,” she said. “The shark started fighting back and thrashing around. I was screaming through my snorkel but I couldn’t get a word out because the snorkel tube was in my mouth.”
No one on board knew that she was fighting death.
“I pulled his jaw open and my arm popped out. I looked and it was gone.”
Tiffany Johnson on a Grand Cayman cruise after being attacked by a shark. (Tiffany Johnson)
A shark was spotted swimming over a sandbar during a Dragonfly Sport Fishing Charters shark watching trip off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, on August 13, 2021. Megan Winton of the Atlantic Great White Shark Conservation Society said great whites start appearing in earnest in July, with sightings peaking from August through October. (AP Photo/Phil Marcelo, File)
Tiffany Johnson sees her children for the first time since the attack. (Tiffany Johnson)
She continued to fight. “At one point, I pulled his jaw open and my arm went flying. I looked down and it was gone.”
All that was left was about three to five inches of her shoulder and upper arm.
The entire attack happened as if with a snap of fingers.
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Johnson and her husband were on a cruise, ironically snorkeling off the coast of Paradise Island, when her husband began feeling ill.
Within 10 minutes of coming out of the water, Johnson vomited on the boat and, despite medical staff treating him, the shark broke off his arm.
Tiffany Johnson and her husband celebrating their anniversary. (Tiffany Johnson)
Researchers studying mako sharks off the Outer Banks of North Carolina were surprised when one of their test subjects returned to their boat and bit into its hull. (Sulikowski Shark and Fish Conservation Institute)
Tiffany Johnson and her husband jumped into the ocean to save her after she was attacked by a shark during their first cruise. (Tiffany Johnson)
After escaping, she surfaced, threw away her snorkel and screamed. Her husband heard her desperate cries for help and rushed to her aid.
There were gaps in her memory of the attack, so she relied on her husband’s memories to fill in the gaps.
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“He said he turned around and saw me, and I started swimming and was lifting my injured arm out of the water,” Johnson said.
“There was literally blood everywhere. That’s what he saw and I remember making eye contact with him.
“The look of terror on his face was something I’d never seen before. As I was approaching the boat he just yelled ‘baby’ and jumped in the water.”
Underwater shot of a swimming shark. (iStock)
Tiffany Johnson before her first snorkeling trip in Mexico. (Tiffany Johnson)
At that point, no one had even noticed the shark.
Johnson recalled being “laser focused” on the boat and said, “It felt like the boat was right behind me.”
“I kept praying, ‘God, please get me to that boat,'” Johnson said. “My husband met me in the water. I got here almost by myself, but he carried me the last 10 feet or so.”
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Cruise ship employees threw him a rope to get onto the ship, and while they were at the ladder, the shark “just shoved me off from behind,” Johnson said.
“The captain grabbed me by my left arm and I was thrown against the boat. The moment I was thrown against the boat, I felt the peace of God hovering around me like a cloud.
“Every time I talk about it I get so emotional it’s hard to put into words. All I can say is it was like a cloud of peace so thick you could touch it.”
Tiffany Johnson after surgery. (Tiffany Johnson)
Tiffany Johnson returns home after being attacked by a shark. (Tiffany Johnson)
Great white shark. (Reuters/SeaChange Technology)
Tiffany Johnson and her family returned to the Bahamas for the first time since the attack. (Tiffany Johnson)
They used towels as makeshift tourniquets, and she lay there for the longest seven minutes of her life.
The boat headed straight for Paradise Island to take Johnson to hospital, where they cried out for help when they arrived.
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After the initial shock among bystanders, authorities escorted everyone to the main port, where it took another 20 minutes or so, Johnson said.
Johnson said they finally made it to an emergency room, but medical care in the Bahamas is not as advanced as in the U.S., and they had passport issues returning to the U.S., necessitating the intervention of the U.S. Embassy.
Tiffany Johnson with her husband and children. (Tiffany Johnson)
Tiffany Johnson is cooking while adjusting to life without her right arm. (Tiffany Johnson)
But she survived, and she’s thriving: she’s a writer and she helps other shark attack survivors.
Johnson and her husband enjoy life by celebrating anniversaries and traveling.
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“I truly believe that God miraculously saved me,” she said. “When I tell anyone with medical knowledge[what happened at the hospital in the Bahamas]they are speechless.”
“They say, ‘Tiffany, we don’t know how you’re alive. You’re alive, you’re a walking miracle. Science can’t explain you. You know you’re incomprehensible.'”
