At just 17, Addison Bethea was scalloping with her older brother, Rhett Willingham, off Florida’s Keaton Beach on June 30, 2022, when a roughly 9-foot shark suddenly attacked her. Addison was pulled underwater, and when Rhett realized what was happening, he immediately rushed to help his younger sister.

Rhett, a firefighter and EMT, helped get Addison away from the shark and onto a boat. During the trip toward shore, he used his emergency medical training to help control her severe bleeding while others called for emergency ᴀssistance. She was eventually airlifted to Tallahᴀssee Memorial Hospital.

Doctors fought to save as much of Addison’s leg as possible, but the injuries were devastating. After about a week in the hospital, she underwent an amputation above the knee and immediately began rehabilitation. She would spend 37 days in the hospital, followed by a long period of physical therapy and recovery.

Yet Addison refused to let that moment become the ending of her story.

Within months, she was learning to walk with a prosthetic and rebuilding her independence. By September 2022, she had received her prosthetic and was already reaching new milestones in her recovery.

Her journey continued far beyond simply learning to walk again. She returned to school, graduated, and eventually returned to the ocean — the same environment where everything had changed for her.

Nearly one year after the attack, Addison went back into the water with Rhett beside her. She later said that being there again felt surprisingly normal, a powerful reminder of how far she had come.

The teenager who once needed to be carried from the water was now standing on her own.

Addison’s story became about more than surviving a terrifying accident. It became a story about family, determination and refusing to allow one life-changing moment to decide what comes next. 💙

And through every step of that journey, her older brother Rhett remained one of the people who helped make her survival possible. 🙏

SOURCES:
ABC News — Addison Bethea’s recovery one year later