A punching, kicking snorkeling grandmother in Australia managed to drive off a shark who "tore out" a piece of her body. Paddy Trumbull, 60, was diving off Queensland from a chartered boat when she felt an "almighty tug" on her backside and turned to see "this huge shark." She determined the 5-foot-long creature was "not going to get the better of me, and I started punching it on the nose, punching, punching, punching," she recalled.
When the shark pulled her under water, she started kicking it in the neck until it finally freed her, reports the BBC. She was hauled back on the boat by fellow snorklers and airlifted to a nearby hospital. Doctors said she was lucky to be alive after losing a significant chunk of flesh and 40% of her blood. "They're going to get me a counselor to sort it out," she said. "And I have to have a new, remodeled bottom, so that's a positive." (More Paddy Trumbull stories.)