N.C. Shark Attack Victim Thought he was Being Bitten by a Crab

June 30--AVON, N.C. -- Patrick Thornton, speaking by phone Monday from his room at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, said, "I thought it was a crab bite at first."

Thornton, 47, had been vacationing with his family on the Outer Banks, and they'd been swimming in the same area of the beach in Avon all week.

Around 11:30 a.m. Friday, the banker from Charlotte was playing in the surf with his son and daughter when he felt a tug on his ankle.

He was already bleeding by the time he spotted a 5-foot-long, dark-colored shark swimming around him in waist-deep water.

"I yelled, 'Shark, shark!,' " he said.

Jamie Monroe and her family from Tennessee had just arrived at the beach, and her 6-year-old had already launched himself into the water with his skimboard. After Thornton's yell, Monroe screamed to her children.

"If he had not been there and warned us, I don't know what would have happened," Monroe said. "He is our hero."

People around Thornton, including his niece and nephew, scrambled out of the water. Thornton felt the shark latch onto his back. He punched it in the head and side three times, he said, before the predator let go.

Three other sharks swam close by, apparently drawn to the blood from his leg wound, he said.

Thornton lunged farther out into the ocean to protect his 8-year-old son, who was paralyzed with fear. He pushed him toward the shore and put himself between the boy and the shark.

The fish leapt from the water, Thornton said, and sunk its teeth into his back again. He elbowed it in the nose. Again, it let go, giving him a chance to get to shore.

Avon Fire and Rescue was on the scene in minutes, he said. As the paramedics took him away, he reassured his children that he'd be OK.

"I felt really calm when I came out of the ocean," he said.

Thornton was flown to the hospital after becoming the fifth shark bite victim this month on the North Carolina coast. A sixth person was attacked the next day and was listed in serious condition Monday.

Thornton has deep puncture wounds on his back. He lost 10 inches of skin just above his ankle. He is recovering and expected to be released from the hospital later Monday.

As scary as the encounter was, he said, sharks will not keep him from vacationing at the beach.

"I will definitely come back again," he said. "Obviously, I will be very cautious about going into the water."

Fifty-two shark attacks were reported in North Carolina from 1935 through 2014, according to the International Shark Attack File. Six occurred in Dare County. Two of the six attacks in North Carolina this month have been in Dare. The last fatal shark attack in the state happened in Avon in 2001.

"Shark attacks are rare," said Sara Mirabilio, fisheries extension specialist with the North Carolina Sea Grant. "I try to tell people all the time that you have a higher probability of getting in your car and getting into a fatal accident over this Fourth of July holiday."

The higher incidence of shark bites is about statistics, she said: More people are going to the beach, and shark populations are rebounding.

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