Teen Carley Schlentz Thought Shark Attack Was Friend Grabbing Her Leg

(June 29) -- Thirteen-year-old Carley Schlentz was swimming with friends at North Carolina's Topsail Island beach when she felt something latching onto her leg. Turned out it was a 5-foot-long shark.

"I thought it was my best friend's sister grabbing on to my ankle but then it got really tight," she said CBS' "The Early Show" today. "I realized something was wrong."

The Greensboro girl said she was only in 4-foot-deep waters at the beach near Wilmington when she was attacked by a bull shark.

Carley quickly realized the shark had already bitten her twice on the foot.

"It was pretty bad," the eighth-grader told WGHP-TV. "The ligament was spread out and you could see it."

"Right after, she screamed and jerked her leg back," Carley's mother, Angela Schlentz, told WGHP. "She stepped on its head when she was trying to get her foot away from it."

Carley, who was spending the day with her friend's family, was taken to shore as family friend Barry Angel fashioned a tourniquet from a T-shirt. She was taken to Cape Fear Hospital in Wilmington, where she received 60 stitches in her foot.

"They just couldn't believe that she had all her toes -- that the shark opened its mouth and let her foot back out," Carley's mother told the StarNews of Wilmington.

Carley is recovering with antibiotics and while doctors said she should be walking within two weeks, she told the "Early Show" she'll be unable to play volleyball for at least a month.

As for swimming, Carley said she'll re-enter the water -- on her terms.

"I'll probably just stay knee-deep for a while until I feel comfortable again," she said.

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