GLEN ALLEN, Va. — The Virginia mother who was critically injured during a shark attack along Florida’s Gulf Coast in June is thanking the three young women who helped save her life in an exclusive interview with "Inside Edition."
Elisabeth Foley was vacationing with her family in Walton County, Florida,when she was attacked by a shark.The 45-year-old suffered severe injuries to her midsection and the loss of her right hand.
"I just looked behind me and I saw this huge dark mass. And I was like, 'What is that?'" Foley said. "I knew I wanted to get away from it, so I started swimming towards the shore. And that's that's when he bit me between the legs, because I was I was kicking, and I just started screaming."
When she tried to punch the animal in the nose, she said she "missed the mark" and the shark bit her hand and pulled her under the water.
"That's when I thought I was going to die, and the power of the jaws snapped my hand right off," Foley calmly recalled during the interview. "I had about four inches of my bones sticking out."
Her 17-year-old witnessed the attack and likened what she saw to "special effects."
Foley's husband, Ryan, pulled her to shore.
"People who didn't know us just clamored towards us to help us," he said. "And it was just pretty amazing."
"Inside Edition" showed police body-cam video of good Samaritans fashioning tourniquets out of beach towels and T-shirts to save her.
"I remember, I remember the whole thing," Foley said through tears.
Paramedic Rylee Smith and nurses Abby Juedemann and Bailey Massa were at the beach when they heard Foley's screams.
"I looked and I saw the blood in the water," Smith said. "I looked at them, and I was like, 'Are y'all ready?' I know my instincts just kicked out."
Foley was medflighted to a hospital. She underwent 19 surgeries while she was hospitalized for two months.
The mother of three said she is getting used to using her new prosthetic hand and will need reconstructive surgery on her pelvis.
"Thank you from the bottom of my heart for saving my life that day," Foley told Smith, Juedemann and Massa. "I wouldn't be here talking to you if you had not been there... They're not even words to describe how grateful I am."
WATCH: Glen Allen woman has 'remained very positive' as she recovers from Florida shark attack
Foley was one of three victims of shark attacks that day, with another occurring just four miles down the beach.
The family attends Winn’s Baptist Church in Glen Allen where Pastor Jeff Brauer told CBS 6 in June that Foley is "a lady of great faith, and therefore, she’s remained very positive."
“Their faith is strong enough to know that things like that happen to very, very good people," Brauer said at the time about the Foley family. “Sometimes lightning strikes, sometimes things go wrong, we live in a fallen world.”
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"Inside Edition" airs weekdays at 1:35 a.m. on WTVR CBS 6.
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