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[h=4]N.C. shark attack 911 calls: 'His arm is gone!'[/h]Two teenagers were injured in separate shark attacks on the same stretch of North Carolina beach Sunday, according to local officials.
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Two teenagers were severely injured within 90 minutes of each other in two separate shark attacks in North Carolina. Should beachgoers be worried?
Video provided by Newsy Newslook
Emergency responders assist a teenage girl at the scene of a shark attack in Oak Island, N.C., June 14, 2015.(Photo: AP/The Pilot, Southern Pines, N.C.)
Two teenagers who were injured in separate shark attacks on the same stretch of North Carolina beach Sunday are lucky to be alive, local officials said in a press conference Monday.
The victims, who were not identified, were taken to New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington, N.C., according to Brian Watts, Brunswick County emergency services director.
A 13-year-old girl's left arm was amputated below the elbow and she also suffered a leg injury, according to Watts. He said a 16-year-old male's arm was also amputated below the shoulder.
Dispatch recordings of the 911 calls reveal a chaotic scene as bystanders and family members worked to keep the victims from bleeding out.
"It looks like her entire hand is gone," a woman told a dispatcher in the first 911 call. She said the family used a boogie board cord as a tourniquet and held a dry towel to the girl's wrist. After the attack on the second victim, a panicky woman said: "His arm is gone!"
"The key to the success ... was the fact that bystanders on the beach with both patients did very quick first aid," Watts said. Both victims were airlifted with "life-threatening injuries" after the separate attacks.He said the two teens are in stable condition, but have a "long road ahead."
USA TODAY
Shark attacks still very rare in the U.S.
The attacks happened off the coast of Oak Island, about 30 minutes south of Wilmington, N.C. Both victims were "about 20 yards off the shore in waist-deep water" when they were attacked, according to Chris Anselmo, Oak Island, N.C., fire chief.
The 13-year-old girl was bitten around 4 p.m. on Sunday afternoon near a popular pier, according to Tim Holloman, the Oak Island town manager. A little over an hour after the first attack, emergency officials responded to a call about a second shark bite not far from where the first one occurred.
Anselmo said Oak Island beaches are open today and a police helicopter will be looking for sharks near the coast. Swimmers should be cautious, the fire chief said.
"No way that we are going to stop people from going into the water. ... (We) just advise people to be careful and alert," he said.
Swimmers should remember to stay in groups, refrain from swimming at dawn and dusk and stay away from areas where people are fishing, like piers, according to Jen Skoy, a biologist at the South Carolina Aquarium.
The attacks on Sunday come just days after another incident in Ocean Isle Beach, N.C., where a 13-year-old girl was bitten by a shark.
Skoy said when sharks bite humans it's "more of a mistaken identity thing."
"It's usually not a case of a shark thinking, 'I'm going to bite a human,'" she says. "Just a wild animal in their habitat, that thinks something might be good to eat and realizes it isn't."
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