Sharks seen darting along Texas beach prior to successive bites
The South Padre Island Police Department said that four people were injured by a shark on the Fourth of July. (Credit: X/Katie McMillan)
A woman was immersed in the awe of a reef teeming with life when she slammed into "something" during her snorkeling venture.
"When I turned to my right to see what I had bumped into, I was face to face with a shark," North Carolina resident Tiffany Johnson told Fox News Digital about the 2017 attack in the Bahamas.
"The bump I felt was when it had literally grabbed onto my arm, so my arm was in his mouth."
She overcame the sinking feeling of giving up, fought back and finally freed herself, but the shark "completely severed" her arm and left her with "a mangled stump."
![back in the water. This was the first time snorkeling in ocean Cove, Aruba.](https://a57.foxnews.1eye.us/static.foxnews.1eye.us/foxnews.1eye.us/content/uploads/2024/07/1200/675/1st-time-snorkeling-in-ocean-Cove-Aruba.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Tiffany Johnson lost her arm in a shark attack, but it did not stop her from getting back in the water. This was the first time snorkeling in Ocean Cove, Aruba. (Tiffany Johnson)
Johnson said her immediate reaction was defeat, as bits of flashbacks of her life played like a slideshow in her head.
"I felt my body release, like giving up," said Johnson, who described a "sudden strength" that she attributes to God.
"I remember thinking, ‘No, you’re not going to take my life,'" Johnson said, as she did everything she could to free herself from the shark's clutches.
‘SHARK WATCH SERIES’: WHAT SHOULD I DO IF I FACE A SHARK?
And "that's when it was on for him," she said. "The shark began to fight and thrash. I'm screaming through my snorkel, but you really can't utter words. You've got the snorkel tube in your mouth."
No one on the boat knew she was wrestling with death.
"I yanked his jaws open and my arm kind of just flies out, and I look at it, and it's gone."
![Tiffany Johnson during her Grand Cayman cruise after the shark attack.](https://a57.foxnews.1eye.us/static.foxnews.1eye.us/foxnews.1eye.us/content/uploads/2024/07/1200/675/Grand-Cayman.cruise-after-accident.April-2018-scaled.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Tiffany Johnson during her Grand Cayman cruise after the shark attack. (Tiffany Johnson)
![A shark off Cape Cod](https://a57.foxnews.1eye.us/static.foxnews.1eye.us/foxnews.1eye.us/content/uploads/2022/07/1200/675/Shark-MA-2.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
A shark is seen swimming across a sandbar on Aug. 13, 2021, from a shark watch with Dragonfly Sportfishing charters, off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Megan Winton, of the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, said that July is when white sharks appear in earnest, with sightings peaking from August through October. (AP Photo/Phil Marcelo, File)
![Tiffany Johnson the moment she saw her kids for the first time after the attack.](https://a57.foxnews.1eye.us/static.foxnews.1eye.us/foxnews.1eye.us/content/uploads/2024/07/1200/675/seeing-kids-1st-time-6.4.17.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Tiffany Johnson the moment she saw her kids for the first time after the attack. (Tiffany Johnson)
She kept fighting, and "One of the times, I yanked his jaws open, and my arm kind of just flies out, and I look down, and it's gone."
All that was left was her shoulder and about three-to-five inches of her upper arm.
The entire attack happened like a snap of the finger.
A ‘SHARK WATCH SERIES’: ATTACK SURVIVOR TRAPPED 'IN A FEEDING FRENZY'
Johnson and her husband were snorkeling during a cruise excursion – ironically off Paradise Island – when her husband became sick to his stomach.
Within 10 minutes of leaving the water, he threw up on the boat, medical staff tended to him, and the shark snapped Johnson's arm off.
![Tiffany Johnson and her husband celebrating an anniversary.](https://a57.foxnews.1eye.us/static.foxnews.1eye.us/foxnews.1eye.us/content/uploads/2024/07/1200/675/8-year-anniversary-July-10-2017-scaled.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Tiffany Johnson and her husband celebrating an anniversary. (Tiffany Johnson)
![Mako shark swims off North Carolina](https://a57.foxnews.1eye.us/static.foxnews.1eye.us/foxnews.1eye.us/content/uploads/2021/04/1200/675/Mako-shark.png?ve=1&tl=1)
Researchers studying mako sharks off North Carolina's Outer Banks were surprised when one of their test subjects returned to the boat and bit the hull. (SULIKOWSKI SHARK AND FISH CONSERVATION LAB)
![Tiffany Johnson and her loving husband, who jumped into the water to help her, during their first cruise after the shark attack.](https://a57.foxnews.1eye.us/static.foxnews.1eye.us/foxnews.1eye.us/content/uploads/2024/07/1200/675/1st-Cruise-after-accident.april-2018-scaled.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Tiffany Johnson and her husband, who jumped into the water to help her, during their first cruise after the shark attack. (Tiffany Johnson)
After freeing herself, she was on the surface. She tossed her snorkel and screamed. Her husband heard her desperate pleas for help and rushed to her aid.
There were gaps in her memory from the attack, so she relied on her husband's recollection to fill in the blanks.
ATTACK AFTER ATTACK: SEVERAL BEACHGOERS BITTEN BY SHARKS
"He said he turned and saw me. I had started to swim back, and I had put my injured arm up out of the water," Johnson said.
"It was literally spewing blood everywhere. And that was the sight he saw, and I remember locking eyes with him.
"The terror on his face was something I've never seen before, and he just screamed out, 'Baby,’ and jumped in the water as I'm trying to get to that boat."
![swimming sharks underwater](https://a57.foxnews.1eye.us/static.foxnews.1eye.us/foxnews.1eye.us/content/uploads/2020/10/1200/675/Shark-iStock.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Underwater shot of swimming sharks. (iStock)
![Tiffany Johnson before her first time snorkeling in Mexico.](https://a57.foxnews.1eye.us/static.foxnews.1eye.us/foxnews.1eye.us/content/uploads/2024/07/1200/675/1st-time-snorkeling-in-open-ocean-Mexico.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Tiffany Johnson before her first time snorkeling in Mexico. (Tiffany Johnson)
At that point, no one had eyes on the shark.
Johnson remembered being "laser focused" on the boat and said she "felt like it was right behind me."
"I was praying the whole time, ‘God get me to that boat,’" Johnson said. "My husband met me in the water. I had made it most of the way on my own, and he took me the last 10 feet or so."
SHARK SAFETY: 7 TIPS THAT COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE
Cruise employees threw a rope to get onto the boat. They were at the ladder, and the shark "launched me from behind," Johnson said.
"The captain kind of grabbed my left arm, and I hit the boat. The minute I hit that boat, I felt God's peace around me like a cloud.
"Every time I talk about it, I get emotional because it's like, I can't even put it into words fully. All I can say is, it felt like a thick, tangible cloud of peace."
![Tiffany Johnson after her surgery.](https://a57.foxnews.1eye.us/static.foxnews.1eye.us/foxnews.1eye.us/content/uploads/2024/07/1200/675/after-surgery-2018-scaled.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Tiffany Johnson after her surgery. (Tiffany Johnson)
![Tiffany Johnson home after the shark attack.](https://a57.foxnews.1eye.us/static.foxnews.1eye.us/foxnews.1eye.us/content/uploads/2024/07/1200/675/1st-book-coauthor-scaled.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Tiffany Johnson home after the shark attack. (Tiffany Johnson)
![- An undated photo - of a Great White shark which can now be repelled by a electronic shark shield. An Australian firm unveiled on March 27, 2002 an electronic shark repellant unit which when attached to swimmers legs, emits an electronic field to??? USE ONLY (Credit : REUTERS/Seachangetechnolgy) - PBEAHUKTBBL](https://a57.foxnews.1eye.us/static.foxnews.1eye.us/foxnews.1eye.us/content/uploads/2018/09/1200/675/shark2.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
A great white shark. (REUTERS/Seachangetechnolgy)
![Tiffany Johnson and her family back in the Bahamas for the first time since the attack.](https://a57.foxnews.1eye.us/static.foxnews.1eye.us/foxnews.1eye.us/content/uploads/2024/07/1200/675/1st-time-family-went-to-Nassu-after-attack-scaled.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Tiffany Johnson and her family back in the Bahamas for the first time since the attack. (Tiffany Johnson)
They used towels as a makeshift tourniquet. She lay down during the longest seven minutes of their lives.
The ship beelined for Paradise Island to get Johnson to a hospital. They reached the island and yelled for help.
WOMAN CONQUERS FEAR OF SHARKS BY SWIMMING WITH OVER 20 OF THEM
After onlookers' initial shock, they directed everyone to the main port, which was another 20 more minutes, according to Johnson.
They finally reached the emergency room, but Bahamian medical care is not as advanced as America's, and there were passport issues getting back to the U.S. that required the U.S. Embassy's involvement, Johnson said.
![Tiffany Johnson with her husband and kids.](https://a57.foxnews.1eye.us/static.foxnews.1eye.us/foxnews.1eye.us/content/uploads/2024/07/1200/675/Fall-2017-family-pic-scaled.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Tiffany Johnson with her husband and kids. (Tiffany Johnson)
![Tiffany Johnson is cooking as she adjusted to her life without her right arm.](https://a57.foxnews.1eye.us/static.foxnews.1eye.us/foxnews.1eye.us/content/uploads/2024/07/1200/675/Amputee-cooking-scaled.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Tiffany Johnson cooks as she has adjusted to her life without her right arm. (Tiffany Johnson)
However, she did. She is alive and thriving. She is an author and helping other shark attack survivors.
Johnson and her husband are celebrating anniversaries, going on trips and enjoying their lives.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
"I believe wholeheartedly God miraculously saved me," she said. "Every time I tell that to anybody (what happened in the hospital in the Bahamas) with any kind of medical knowledge, they're speechless.
"They're like, ‘Tiffany, I don’t know how you're alive. You're a living, walking miracle. Science can't explain you. You know you don't make sense.'"