Family snorkeling trip in Bahamas turns into race to save man’s leg after shark attack

"It hits you hard and quick" | A family snorkeling trip in the Bahamas turned into race to save man's leg after a shark attack, only the fourth ever documented from this shark type.

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EAST LYME, Conn. —

All John Schweizer wanted for his fortieth wedding anniversary was to take a fun trip with his family.

“We were game for anything,” Schweizer said. “Until I got bitten by a shark.”

He remains positive about one of the worst days of their Bahamas vacation. But he hasn’t forgotten it.

“You could see the sharks,” he said. “They were, they were big, and they said, ‘Don’t worry, the sharks, once you jump in like a cannonball, some big noise, they go deeper, they won’t bother you.'”

They normally don’t bother you — but this time, one did.

“I got hit pretty hard, you know, either pulled me down or pushed me up. My wife yelled at me to quit fooling around. Um, and I knew it was a shark. If you ever got bitten by a large dog, you would know it’s very, it hits you hard and quick,” he said.

From the shadow he saw swimming away, he thinks the shark was about 5 to 7 feet long, and all of a sudden their excursion turned into a race to save his leg. They quickly got him back to a cruise ship, where an emergency room doctor jumped in to help.

“With a bite like that, any animal, it’s the dirt and the bacteria in their mouth,” Schweizer said. “He spent 3 hours stitching me up.”

After 26 stitches to the shin and 4 more in his hand, he was taken to a hospital in Miami, then brought home to Connecticut, where his neighbors cheered him up in the best way.

Schweizer said his support system of loved ones in his corner has definitely made the healing process much easier.

“It’s a good story. There’s a lot of stuff going on in the world that’s not great. It’s a feel-good story, and I’m happy to be part of it,” he said.

It’s also an extremely rare story. The Florida Museum of Natural History has an International Shark Attack File that shows only four unprovoked attacks by Caribbean reef sharks have ever been documented, and for Schweizer, he wants nothing to do with increasing that number ever again.

“I’m not going to swim with sharks anymore,” he said.