Florida saw most unprovoked shark bites in the country last year
A Pennsylvania girl is speaking out after surviving a shark bite at a Florida beach on Monday.
Magnolia Woodhead, 12, told FOX 35 Orlando that the incident occurred while swimming in Cocoa Beach.
"Right when I got out of the water, I just started screaming because I knew that it wasn't good," she said.
Her mother, Melissa Stallings, told the outlet that when her husband picked their daughter up, they could see blood dripping down her leg.
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Magnolia Woodhead, left, and her mother Melissa Stallings recalled the incident to FOX 35 Orlando. (FOX 35)
Woodhead had been swimming south of the Cocoa Beach pier.
She and her family are visiting the area from Philadelphia and were in town for a gymnastics competition.
They took a trip to the beach a day before.
"My first thought was, like, I'm not going to do gymnastics," the girl explained.
"Shark bite was not on the agenda for the day, I'll tell you that," Stallings said.
The type of shark was not immediately made clear.
A surfer walks on Cocoa Beach, Florida, on Feb. 28, 2022. (CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images)
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Woodhead got 50 stitches, and doctors told her they believed the shark had bitten her twice because of the number of puncture wounds.
After all of that, she was still able to show up to support her teammates.
"I was just there because I really wanted to support my teammates because I know they've worked so hard on this contest and stuff," Woodhead said.
A surfer runs in the water on Cocoa Beach, Florida, on Feb. 28, 2022. (CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images)
While the tween still hopes to return to the Sunshine State to compete in the future, she is not going to the beach again any time soon.
"For a long time," she said.
Cocoa Beach is located in Brevard County. Florida's Volusia County – a little over an hour up the coast – is known as the "Shark bite Capital of the World."
Florida had the most unprovoked bites in the U.S. last year, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File 2022 report.
Florida’s 16 cases represented 39% of the U.S. total and 28% of unprovoked bites worldwide. Notably, that number was lower than Florida’s most recent five-year annual average of 22 incidents.
Volusia County had the most shark bites, seven, representing 44% of the state’s total.
Julia Musto is a reporter for Fox News and Fox Business Digital.
