Shark Attacks Local Teen Off NC Coast

WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH, N.C.,None — Thanks for voting in our unscientific survey of the day. Are you concerned about going into the ocean after the recent shark attacks? Are you concerned about going into the ocean after the recent shark attacks? Yes No

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.

WSOC