Teen, 15, loses leg in shark attack during vacation

Friday, August 9, 2024 - An American teenager lost her leg in a shark attack while vacationing in Belize this week, her family said.

Annabelle Carlson, 15, was on a diving trip to the Lighthouse Reef near Half Moon Caye in the Gulf of Honduras with her family and a tour group when the attack occurred Tuesday morning, August 6, according to the Aspen Daily News.

Carlson, of Aspen, Colorado, had taken off her diving equipment and hopped into the water for a post-excursion swim when she was bitten, the outlet said.

“Annabelle was able to fight off the attack as best as she could but was critically injured in the fight,” a GoFundMe page set up for the teen’s family stated.

“Annabelle 1, shark 0.”

The tour operators with Belize Dive Pro rescued Carlson from the water and immediately brought her to a Coast Guard base, where officials helped stabilize her, Adm. Elton Bennett of the Belize Coast Guard told ABC.

Photos from the incident showed a team of people carrying the teen to safety once they got back on land.

“It was her right leg that received a bite from the shark. So, she lost her right leg,” Bennett explained.

After she was stabilized at a hospital in Belize City, Carlson was airlifted to a trauma center in the US, the GoFundMe said.

The shark attack was the first in recent memory in Belize, Channel 5 Belize said.

“We’re very saddened about it, but I want to highlight that this is something that is very rare and I don’t think this is a time to say, well, you know, we don’t want to go swimming again or something,” Belize’s Minister of the Blue Economy told the outlet.

Carlson, who is a rising sophomore at Aspen High School, “will have a very long road of recovery ahead of her,” the family’s fundraiser page said.

As of Friday afternoon, August 9, the GoFundMe had raised over $98,800 of its $250,000 goal.