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"I jumped in the water just to go for a swim and next thing you know, I came up and I was covered in blood," shark bite victim Ashley Silverman said.

Silverman said she was just trying to cool off when the shark went on the attack.

Someone pulled her out of the water before the shark tried to strike again.

The attack happened Tuesday at Bud N' Mary's Marina in Islamorada.

Silverman was airlifted to Baptist Hospital in Kendall and underwent surgery on her arm Wednesday.

Silverman and her boyfriend, both from Jacksonville, were vacationing in the Keys.

"I jumped in the water and then I just felt it snap on my arm," she said. "It was quick, really quick. Then I just felt my hand and felt my bone. I saw my bone. There were pieces of my flesh in the water. Muscles were like, oozing out. It was really gross."

The 19-year-old's boyfriend jumped to her rescue.

"As soon as she said, 'Baby, help me,' were the first words out of her mouth, I just jumped in the water and tried to snatch her onto the boat as fast as I could," boyfriend Christopher Wood said. "I helped the guy put the tourniquet on her arm and, I mean, blood was just everywhere."

Doctors said Silverman was lucky she did not lose her right arm. They said she now faces six to 12 hours of reconstructive surgery.

"She has a large piece of tissue that's missing," Dr. Randy Miller at Baptist Hospital said. "Inside contained in that tissue are nerves, blood vessels and tendons, as well as the coverage on the outside of the arm."

No one saw the shark, but based on the bite, Miller said he believes it was a 10- to 15-foot shark.

"The reason we think it was a shark is because shark's teeth face inward," he said. "So, when a shark bites and the shark doesn't let go and it wiggles its head or the person tries to pull away from the shark, usually that tissue just gets ripped right out of the patient. And that's exactly what happened in this case."

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