Dave Daniel says he is “incredibly humble and thankful” after surviving a brutal shark attack that left him bleeding on a Florida beach and facing death.
Daniel, 43, a Florida exterminator, was fishing in shallow water at a sandbar in Key West on Aug. 23 when a six or seven foot nurse shark he had spotted suddenly charged at him. The beast “beelined” toward him “face-to-face” and latched onto his legs, he recalled.
“I looked down in the water and there was so much blood in the water,” Daniel said of the horrifying mauling. After the attack, he remembered thinking, “there’s no way you’re getting off this beach, bud.”
Sitting wounded on the sand, Daniel made peace with what seemed like his final moments. “Sitting on the beach, bleeding out, I was making peace with myself saying ‘if it’s your time to go, it’s your time to go,'” he said.
Then two nearby boaters spotted him and raced over. They happened to be medically trained — nurses and EMTs who provided critical aid while waiting for rescue.
“If it weren’t for them, I would 100% be dead on the beach,” Daniel told WSVN. “Grace to God that they were medically-trained people and nurses and EMTs.”
Courtney McMurrary, the trained nurse who was among those boaters, said that she found herself in “the right place [at the] right time.”
“I think he and I were meant to be there,” she said.
The boaters’ intervention kept Daniel stable until the US Coast Guard arrived and airlifted him to a Miami hospital. He underwent two successful surgeries and was discharged on Wednesday, though his recovery remains extensive.
“I can’t really move around at all,” Daniel said, noting his foot is in a boot and bandaged from the procedures. His recovery is expected to take months and will include physical therapy and time away from work.
Despite his injuries, Daniel maintained his sense of humor about the ordeal. “I feel okay, like pretty strong. Just my blood pressure’s acting a little funny because, you know, I just got attacked by a shark,” he quipped to WSVN.
The experience has left him with a sharpened perspective on mortality. “One minute you could be walking around having a great time, looking at beautiful weather and having fun with friends, and the next minute, you could literally be dead,” he explained.
That realization has only deepened his gratitude. Daniel said he now understands “that every minute does count in your life.”
The attack unfolded while Daniel was fishing in shallow water at a sandbar, a setting where nurse sharks are frequently encountered though serious attacks remain rare. He had noticed the large shark in the water and attempted to move away before it charged directly at him.
Daniel’s physical healing will stretch across months, but the psychological impact may linger even longer. He has already made clear that his relationship with the ocean has fundamentally changed.
“Probably not for a long time,” he added when discussing a possible return to the water.
“I don’t think I’m going to get back in the water any time soon,” Daniel said.