WARNING: This story contains material that some viewers may find disturbing due to the graphic nature.
Myrtle Beach-Florence, SC (CNN) — The first day of a beach vacation ruined, not by rain or sunburn, but by a shark bite!
Karen Sites traveled from Pennsylvania to South Carolina, only to end up in the hospital for surgery and hundreds of stitches.
“I'll sit on the sand, but I am not going in the water."
Before last week, eight-year-old Brian Sites loved playing in the sand and taking an occasional dip in the ocean.
The Sites family had been planning their vacation to Myrtle Beach for over a year.
“I just felt something I guess bite me and I looked down and there was a shark on my arm, and I was only in waist-deep water, and I kept pushing at it to get it off my arm and then it did."
It was just after noon on their first full day of vacation when their trip would take a shocking turn.
“I couldn't even see the shark coming up. the shark jumped up and it didn't even bite like all the way, like I saw the movement of its tail like going to the side and then she screamed a little bit but like, as soon as she touched it, it just fell into the water."
The 8-year-old was only ten feet away from his grandmother when he watched her get bitten by a shark.
Sites was taken to a local hospital where she underwent surgery and received hundreds of stitches.
“It's very clearly a shark bite, when you look at the arc of the tooth marks and the damage that was done, and my sympathies to the victim. That's a horrendous thing to go through."
Daniel Abel is a Professor of Marine Science at Coastal Carolina University.
He says sharks are not uncommon this time of year and if you plan to swim in their home, there's some precautions you should take.
“Do not swim at dawn and dusk. There are not many people in the water then and some of the sharks are closer to shoreline and feeding. Don't swim where there are schools of small fish, they're called bait. Don't swim near where people are fishing like in piers."
Abel says shark bites are extremely rare and, while he offers his sympathy to victims of shark encounters, it's important to understand that sharks are important to our ecosystem.
“It's very important that we treat our sharks, and our ocean and our entire planet with more respect than we do now."
Sites says her shark encounter will not keep her from enjoying the beach, she just needs to heal and get the all-clear from her doctors.
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