A teenage boy fought off a shark after as it tried to bite his leg off.
Garrett Sebesta, 15, was left with a seven-inch gash in his leg from the bite, and severe damage to his hand after the attack in waist-high water off the Gulf Coast in Texas.
But it could have been so much worse and now Garrett has been praised for his bravery.
Garrett was swimming with friends from a church group in the resort of Surfside Beach, on the outskirts of Houston.
He felt a shark bite into his left leg and immediately grabbed it and pulled it off him.
But the animal continued its attack, biting his hand until he finally managed to shake it off and it swam away.
The teenager was helped out of the water by his friends before being tended to by paramedics. He was airlifted to a hospital in Houston, where he underwent surgery on Monday evening.
"He was a trooper," medic Suandra Monnat told local news.
"This kid felt the shark bite his calf, and then literally grabbed the shark and tore it off of him."
Local officials said it had been more than two decades since the last shark attack in the area, where jellyfish stings are a much more common complaint.