Bethany Hamilton

A couple tugs was all it took and before she knew it her arm was gone and from what it looked like so was her career as a professional surfer. As a thirteen year old, most of us aren't worried about what the surf is like, what types of bathing suits we are wearing, or the type of surfboards we have but Bethany was the complete opposite. Her world revolved around surfing; it was a part of her life, and so quickly it could have been taken from her. She had only been in the water for 30 minutes and within those 30 minutes, Bethany was attacked by a shark, taking her arm with it. Despite the loss of her arm, she didn't let that stop her from following her dreams and doing what she loves, surfing. The life of Bethany Hamilton has changed the sport
Bethany Hamilton was born on February 8th, 1990 to Tom and Cheri Hamilton. Both of her parents were natural surfers from the start, so it was bound to be in her blood. At a very young age she was introduced to surfing and at only 7 years old she had developed the skills to surf on her own. She was already being placed into "push and ride" competitions which of course parents took part in considering their children's ages. Her first competition that she took place in as an individual was called "Rell Sun", where she won all of her heats and division championships. She also ended up continuing to compete in surfing competitions and from there, her career took
The day Bethany had been attacked her father was also in the hospital being prepped for a procedure that would be done on his knee. Considering the attack, her fathers procedure had to be put off because they needed the exact room her father was in for Bethany. Her father hadn't heard any news of what had happened to his daughter Bethany all he had heard was something that one of the emergency nurses had said to one of the doctors in the room making sure he was aware of the situation. This emergency nurse had simply said,"Theirs a thirteen year old girl coming, a shark victim" (Hamilton 88). Her father soon realized it was either Bethany or Alana. The procedure that would now be done on Bethany was called a "traumatic amputation." It had turned out that Bethany had lost half of her blood volume 60% to be exact. Loosing that much blood is defiantly critical especially for a girl as young as she was. Bethany had to have her nerves cut, which ended up causing phantom pain. Phantom pain is when you can feel pain from a limb that is no longer their which for her was her left arm that now was going to be referred to as a 3-4 inch stub. Bethany had been told by her doctor Dr. Rovinsky that shark bites preferably tiger shark bites tend to have a higher risk of infection because of how unsanitary their