A courageous mother of three survived a terrifying encounter with a 10-foot Great White shark by fighting back with raw determination, gouging at the predator’s eyes as it dragged her underwater just yards from shore.
Leeanne Ericson was enjoying a day at San Onofre beach with family and friends when she paddled out into the ocean to be near her boyfriend, Dusty Phillips, who was surfing. What began as a peaceful outing quickly turned into a life-or-death struggle when the massive shark struck without warning.
“As soon as it grabbed my leg, I knew what it was,” Ericson told Surfline. “I remember being pulled down and thinking about my kids. My brain shut off and went into fight or flight mode.”
The shark tore a large chunk out of her thigh, pulling her beneath the surface. Dusty Phillips, paddling nearby, heard a piercing scream that abruptly stopped.
“As I was paddling, I heard the scream,” he recalled. “It was a piercing scream I’d never heard. And it disappeared, mid-scream. I turned around as quick as I could and there wasn’t even a ripple. Where the f*** did she go?”
In the frantic underwater battle, Ericson refused to surrender. She punched the shark and then targeted its eyes in a desperate bid for survival.
“I was trying to push the shark off of me. My hands moved down towards the eye and I started digging at it. I felt like I was digging at a cup of jello,” she said.
Her fierce resistance worked. The shark eventually released its grip, allowing Ericson to surface. Phillips rushed to her aid, but the sight of his girlfriend left him fearing the worst.
“I thought that was it for her,” he told ABC News. “She was a completely grey colour that looked like she was already dead.”
Ericson was airlifted to a nearby hospital, where she was placed in a medically induced coma. Doctors initially feared they might have to amputate her leg, but instead performed tissue grafts using skin from her other leg. She spent nine weeks in the Intensive Care Unit and underwent eight surgeries.
Though she is making a remarkable recovery and has had to relearn how to walk, Ericson still has no feeling in her injured leg. The ordeal has upended every aspect of her life. The mother of four-year-old twins and an 11-year-old daughter has been placed on disability and lost full-time custody of her children. The mounting medical bills, which have reached millions of dollars, have added immense financial pressure to her already harrowing recovery.
A GoFundMe campaign established to help cover her medical expenses has raised more than £60,000, reflecting an outpouring of support for the resilient mother.
The attack, one of two shark incidents that led to the temporary closure of the beach, has left an indelible mark on Ericson and her family. Yet her story stands as a powerful testament to maternal instinct and human tenacity in the face of nature’s most formidable predators. As she continues her long road to full recovery, Leeanne Ericson’s survival serves as both an inspiration and a sobering reminder of the ocean’s untamed power.