He was ‘staring at me with my arm in his mouth,’ says Concord shark attack survivor

The 32-year-old Concord woman who lost her right arm in a June shark attack provided more horrific details during a Sunday visit to her hometown of Huntington, West Virginia.

Tiffany Johnson and her husband, James, were snorkeling off Nassau in the Bahamas when she stopped to admire a coral reef. It was then that she felt a tug on her arm, according to media reports. She was just 10 feet from the boat at the time. Her recent comments were made before the congregation of New Life Church in Huntington, reported the Williamson Daily News in West Virginia..

“When I turned to my right, I was face to face with the shark,” she was quoted as telling the congregation. “He had my whole arm in his mouth...Of course, fear just fell over me. He just stared at me. He wasn't thrashing. Just staring at me with my arm in his mouth with these dark beady eyes that were just darting everywhere then staring, darting everywhere then staring. It was just this evilness, and it felt like time stood still.”

She pulled her arm free in a struggle with the shark, but quickly realized half of it didn't come with her. Keeping her wits, Johnson says she began calling for help and swimming toward the tour boat. Her husband jumped in and met her halfway when he saw all the blood, it was reported.

Johnson told the congregation “all she felt was peace” after being pulled into the boat. “It was like a thick, tangible cloud,” Johnson was quoted as saying. “I remember looking at J.J., no tears, no shock, no panic, just in this same tone of voice I said, find me something to stop the bleeding.”

A beach towel was used for a tourniquet during her 30-minute journey back to the island, Williamson Daily News. Once in the hospital, Johnson said she suffered from extreme pain and quickly realized the island medical staff were not equipped to help her to the fullest extent, reported the newspaper. The surgeon couldn't even close her wound because of the swelling, it was reported.

Tiffany underwent surgery to temporarily stop the bleeding and was then allowed to fly home to the Charlotte area, despite not having her passports with her, reported the Observer in June.

On June 9, doctors Glenn Gaston and Bryan Loeffler of OrthoCarolina Hand performed a procedure called a targeted muscle reinnervation, which will allow her brain to control the actions of her prosthetic appendage, according to a Charlotte Observer story. OrthoCarolina Hand is one of only a handful of clinics around the world that performs the operation below the elbow.

Today, Johnson has a prosthetic arm that she can control, and is speaking before congregations about how faith helped her survive.

“I look back at my response, and the first thing I said was ‘Help, help me Jesus!’” the Daily News quoted Johnson as saying. “That ministers to me. I cried tears about how the first thing that came out was him. Thank you, Jesus, that I relied on you when I had nothing else.”

This story was originally published November 22, 2017 at 9:23 AM with the headline "He was ‘staring at me with my arm in his mouth,’ says Concord shark attack survivor."