Boy, 16, who lost arm in North Carolina shark attack vows to ‘live a normal life’

A BRAVE teen whose arm was ripped off by a shark in the shallows of a North Carolina beach has made a touching promise to himself.

In this image taken from video provided by New Hanover Regional Medical Center, 16-year-old Hunter Treschl, of Colorado Springs, Colo., speaks during an interview at New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington, N.C., Tuesday, June 16, 2015. The teen was seriously wounded in a shark attack. "We were just playing around in the waves, and I felt a hit on my left calf," Treschl said in a videotaped interview released Tuesday night by the hospital where he is being treated. "I thought it felt like a big fish, and I started moving away. And then the shark bit my arm _ off." (New Hanover Regional Medical Center via AP)

A TEENAGER whose arm was ripped off in a horrific shark attack in North Carolina said he refuses to let the tragedy ruin his life.

Hunter Treschl, 16, was mauled in the shallow waters of Oak Island beach on Sunday, just an hour after 12-year-old Kiersten Yow was also attacked by a shark nearby.

Now Hunter, from Colorado, has spoken out about the terrifying attack from a bed at New Hanover Regional Medical Centre in Wilmington, North Carolina.

“We were just playing around in the waves, and I felt a hit on my left calf,” he said on Tuesday night.

“I thought it felt like a big fish, and I started moving away. And then the shark bit my arm off.”

Hunter said he was able to make it on to the beach with the help of a cousin who had been in the water with him.

He said one of the people who ran to his aid had a belt with him that he used as a tourniquet to stop the bleeding, while others “were all helping me kind of stay calm until the ambulance got there”.

Asked if he ever saw the shark, Hunter said he first felt it hit his left leg before it hit his arm.

“That was the first time I saw it, when it was biting up my left arm,” he said in video released by the medical centre.

Pulling through ... Kiersten Yow, 12, lost her arm below the elbow in the North Carolina shark attack. Picture: Facebook/Kiersten Yow

The teen said he is going to try to live a normal life despite the loss of his dominant hand.

“I have two options: I can try to live my life the way I was and make an effort to do that even though I don’t have an arm, or I can just let this be completely debilitating and bring my life down and ruin it,” he said.

“Out of those two, there’s really only one that I would actually choose and that’s to try to fight and live a normal life with the cards I’ve been dealt.”

Aid ... people assist Kiersten Yow in Oak Island, North Carolina, after Sunday’s horror attack. Picture: Steve Bouser/The Pilot, Southern Pines, NC via AP

Horrific attack ... Kiersten Yow, 12, has a ‘long road to recovery’ after Sunday’s vicious attack. Picture: Steve Bouser/The Pilot, Southern Pines, NC via AP

Treatment ... emergency responders rush Kiersten Yow, 12, to a waiting ambulance. Picture: Steve Bouser/The Pilot, Southern Pines, NC via AP

A little more than an hour before the shark attacked Hunter and about three kilometres away on Sunday, young Kiersten lost her left arm below the elbow and suffered a leg injury when a shark bit her.

Kiersten was in stable condition on Tuesday at the Children’s Hospital at the University of North Carolina, according to a statement from her parents, Brian and Laurie Yow.

“She has a long road to recovery that will include surgeries and rehabilitation, but her doctors at UNC expect she will keep her leg, and for that we are grateful,” the statement read.

Search mission ... boats and helicopters patrol the coastline near Ocean Crest Pier in Oak Island, North Carolina after the shark attacks. Picture: Mike Spencer/The Star-News via AP

Kiersten’s aunt, Christi Rogers, has launched a GoFundMe campaign hoping to raise $US50,000 to help with her niece’s medical expenses.

Authorities said Oak Island doesn’t have lifeguards and shark attacks are rare.