Shark Attacks Local Teen Off NC Coast

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A local teen needed 40 stitches Saturday after a shark attacked her off the North Carolina coast.

Kendall Parker, 13, of Davidson, said she was in waist-deep water at Wrightsville Beach when she felt something bite her arm.

"I just felt something on my arm as I was swimming," she said. "I thought it was my dad joking around and then I pulled it up and it was gushing blood."

Parker said she didn't see a shark and didn't know what had bitten her.

"I didn't even know at first ... could have been bitten by anything," she said.

Her father, Mike Parker, took her to a hospital, where he said a doctor told them the bite appeared to have come from a 4- or 5-foot long sand tiger shark.

Kendall was released from the hospital, but still needs to have surgery to repair a torn tendon. She's expected to make a full recovery.