A dream vacation in the Bahamas for two young American tourists turned into a nightmare when they jumped into the sparkling blue water hand-in-hand and mere minutes later were attacked by a shark.
Rileigh Decker, 20, and Summer Layman, 24, were swimming in Bimini Bay, a popular resort area about 50 nautical miles off Florida, on Friday evening when they were attacked, Royal Bahamas Police said in a statement Saturday.
The women are now back in Florida, sharing the harrowing ordeal from Decker's hospital bed, after both women suffered bites from what they believe was a bull shark.
“We’re just very grateful to still be here with all of our limbs,” Decker told NBC's "TODAY" show Tuesday.
The girls had plunged into the sea off a friend’s yacht, but soon after, Decker said, she “felt something nudge my leg.”
“I was like, ‘Summer, what was that?’ And she was like, ‘Don’t scare me like that.’ And probably about two minutes later, we were right by the ladder. I felt my leg get tugged down, and I immediately knew I was bit by a shark,” Decker recalled.
Their group of friends and family members immediately pulled them out of the water to safety. They wrapped a tourniquet around Decker's right leg and found Layman also suffering a bite.
“They yelled to me that the top of my foot was shredded, and I just hadn’t realized until I looked down,” Layman said.
Decker said through tears: “I just put my head in my hands and started praying that God wouldn’t take my life and I would live. Yeah, it was very scary.”
Decker was airlifted to a hospital in the Bahamas for further treatment. Once they were both stable, both were flown back to Florida for Decker to undergo surgery.
The Bahamas has one of the highest shark incident rates in the world, with 34 confirmed unprovoked attacks since recordkeeping began, according to the Florida Museum’s international shark attack database. In 2023, a 44-year-old Boston woman was killed after she was bitten while she was paddleboarding in the Bahamas, and in April a 24-year-old man was attacked by two sharks in a matter of seconds after she fell into the water at a marina.
The women said they won’t enter the ocean any time soon.
“I will not be going into the water for a long time,” Layman said.
“I will never. I won’t even put my toes in ever again,” Decker echoed.
Decker is awaiting her third operation in the Orlando area after having endured two procedures to clean out the wound and ensure there’s no infection. Both hope to make full recoveries.
