Beachport shark attack survivor Pam Cook tells of her escape from great white

Incredible pictures show just how lucky a grandmother was to survive being attacked by a great white shark not once, but twice. See the images and hear her amazing tale of survival.

When Pam Cook felt something grab her ankle on her regular beach swim, she didn’t think the next moments would be a struggle for her life.

“When I looked around, the shark was having a piece of me,” Ms Cook said.

Beachport shark attack survivor Ms Cook, 64, spoke to The Advertiser about her harrowing experience for the first time since a juvenile great white bit her, leaving her with serious injuries requiring more than 200 stitches.

Ms Cook was seriously injured when a juvenile great white shark, with jaws “the width of a basketball”, attacked her during a daily swim with about 20 friends near Beachport jetty, at 7.45am on October 2.

Beachport shark attack survivor Pamela Cook Picture: Supplied

Pam Cook leaves Mount Gambier Hospital to continue her recovery. Picture: 7NEWS Adelaide

She sustained a bite to her right ankle, her left thigh and injuries to arms and hands, which resulted in five-and-a-half hours of surgery at Mount Gambier hospital.

“We were probably about 100 or 110 metres out and then I felt like a grab on my ankle and I looked around and it was a shark,” Ms Cook said.

“I started yelling ‘shark, shark’ and then it left and I was still composing myself and it came from underneath and attacked my left thigh.”

Despite rows of sharp teeth clenching down on her leg, Ms Cook said could not feel any pain.

“I didn’t have any pain, I didn’t feel it as it was happening,” she said.

“When the shark attacked me a second time my life flashed before my eyes. On my thigh it was sort of chewing.”

Shark attack survivor Pam Cook with husband Greg, and inset, Beachport jetty.

Then adrenaline kicked in and pushed the shark off with her hands before she made a desperate dash to the ladder on the jetty, about 10 to 15 metres away.

Pamela Cook’s injuries after surgery Picture: Supplied

“The skin was all still there and I was able to hold the flap of the wound, which was quite large,” Ms Cook said.

“My only thought was get the hell out of there.”

With a gaping wound on her leg, Ms Cook climbed on to the jetty and collapsed.

“I was able to go up the ladder and then I couldn’t go any further so I lay down,” she said.

“Once I got on the jetty I just thought I was going to be okay because help is at hand.”

Her friends, four of whom were close by, stayed in the water while she clambered up the ladder.

All Ms Cook recalled was “feeling cold” as she lay on the jetty.

Jetty workers then covered her with blankets and towels to keep her warm while first responders were on their way.

“I’m so lucky they were there and they didn’t panic,” Ms Cook said. “It all happened really quickly.”

The injury to her hand. Picture: Supplied

Injuries to her thigh. Picture: Supplied

Then during her time in hospital, Ms Cook fought a mental battle, forcing herself to block out images of the shark latched on to her leg.

“If I started to drift into visualising the attack I thought no, I’m not going to go there,” she said.

But miraculously, a week later she was discharged from hospital.

“I had the stitches out on Tuesday and the wounds are healing really well,” Ms Cook said.

“I just need to have a brace on my arm and a moon boot on my foot and it will be four weeks (until she is fully recovered).”

Ms Cook, bar manager at the Beachport Hotel, said she will be back to work soon.

And she said she is eager to get back into the water, as her swimming group started up again just two days after the attack.

She said she aims to join them “before Christmas” despite feeling “nervous and tentative”.

“It’s just a wonderful group and I can’t imagine not being part of that group so I’m definitely going back in the water,” Ms Cook said.

The experience left Ms Cook feeling grateful to the people who helped her, and lucky that she lived through the ordeal she said.

“It could’ve happened to anyone, I’m the unlucky one who was bitten but the lucky one to have survived,” she said.

Originally published as Beachport shark attack survivor Pam Cook tells of her escape from great white