Nurse attacked by shark on holiday has emergency surgery to save leg

Delia Yriarte, who was on holiday in the Galapagos Islands, said the sea filled with blood during the attack

A nurse bitten by a shark while on holiday has told how the sea turned red with blood during the terrifying incident.

Delia Yriarte was snorkeling on the islet of Mosquera, on the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador, when she felt a “blow” to her leg.

“I didn’t initially realise what it was,” she told local media. “While I was swimming I felt my leg go numb. When I turned around, I saw there was a lot of blood.”

The woman was carried to safety out of the water (Jam Press)

Ms Yriarte, originally from Mexico but who now lives in the US, sustained serious injuries to her right leg and had to undergo surgery.

“By the time we got to the beach, I was already feeling drained,” she recalled. “I knew what type of wound it was, I saw it was deep and I knew I was losing a lot of blood.”

Ms Yriarte was treated at the scene before being taken to hospital. She was transferred from Santa Cruz Island to San Cristóbal Island before leaving on a military plane to Guayaquil on the mainland, the Ecuadorian Navy said.

“Five tendon repairs, over 100 sutures in my leg, I still have some loss of tissue that needs to be grafted and probably a few more surgeries,” she later told NBC Bay Area.

Footage of the incident showed her being carried off a dinghy with her leg wrapped up in material.

In another clip she is seen exercising her stitched-up right leg with the help of a medic at the hospital where she was treated.

The attack took place off the Galapagos Islands (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

An emergency doctor at the Santa Cruz Island hospital said the 40-year-old woman was "stable, she is conscious, she underwent surgery on her right leg. She did not lose her leg."

The medic added that the tourist never lost consciousness or the mobility of her leg and foot despite horrifying footage showing her leg badly injured.

The Galápagos Islands is a volcanic archipelago in the Pacific Ocean, about 620 miles west of Ecuador.

Designated as a UnescoNatural Heritage Site for Humanity in 1978, the islands are considered one of the best places in the world to view wildlife and a number of nature documentaries have been filmed there.

Charles Darwin visited in 1835 and his observation of Galápagos’ species later inspired his theory of evolution.