Michael Reich

As Michael Reich spearfished a hogfish snapper in the waters off the Bahamas on July 15, he didn’t know a 5-foot shark was watching. That was until the shark sunk its teeth deep into his left elbow.

Reich dropped his spear and hoped the shark would chase after the snapper instead. But the shark, which Reich suspects was a bull or reef shark, shook his arm for a few seconds before letting go. Reich looked the shark straight in the eyes as he swam away.

The U.S. Marine veteran and pilot stayed calm through the pain. Even with a mangled arm, he was able to grab onto the side of his boat and pull himself up, where his two sons and wife Jill awaited.

ill Reich said the shark attack looked like a scene from a movie, with dramatic thrashing and blood. In the boat, she tied a tourniquet around her husband's arm with a cast net and drove the boat as fast as she could back to a marina in Spanish Cay.

“The whole thing happened so quickly,” said 66-year-old Reich of West Palm Beach. “In 10 seconds, it was over. When I was on the boat, my biggest fear wasn’t the pain. … there was just a lot of blood. I thought, ‘This isn’t good.’”

After a one-night stay at a hospital in Nassau, Reich took a flight back to Florida and went to St. Mary’s Medical Center, where doctors performed multiple surgeries to repair his arm.

He stayed there for a week and will wear an extended sling for at least three weeks. His doctor expects him to make a full recovery. Reich wants to spearfish again as soon as he can — he has a house in the Bahamas and loves spending time in the ocean.

“I’m lucky,” Reich said. “Everything after the bite went good.”