She needed a hospital capable of assessing the full extent of the damage.
Emergency transportation was arranged.
A medical helicopter would carry her to further treatment.
For Addison, the sequence had unfolded with terrifying speed.
She had been searching for scallops.
A shark had bitten her leg and pulled her underwater.
Her brother had fought the animal and helped free her.
Now she was aboard a boat with a devastating injury, waiting for the medical response that could save her life.
Chapter 6: A Helicopter Flight and Devastating Medical Findings
Addison was transported by emergency helicopter to a hospital.
By that point, she had survived the immediate shark encounter.
But doctors still faced the difficult task of treating her severely injured right leg.
The shark's bite had caused extensive damage to her thigh.
The injury involved more than the skin.
The muscle tissue had been severely damaged, creating major concerns about whether the leg could be preserved.
For a teenager, the possibility of losing a limb is an enormous physical and emotional consequence.
But surgeons must evaluate whether injured tissue remains viable and whether attempting to preserve a limb would expose the patient to further danger.
The medical team assessed Addison's condition.
The damage to the muscles of her right thigh was severe.
According to the reported account, doctors ultimately determined that the affected muscle could not be restored sufficiently to save the leg.
That conclusion marked another turning point.
The shark had released Addison.
Rhett had brought her to safety.
Emergency treatment had helped her survive.
But the physical damage remained.
The medical team could not reverse everything the shark's jaws had done.
A decision had to be made about the future of her right leg.
The supplied account does not establish every procedure performed between her arrival at the hospital and the eventual amputation.
Nor does it provide a complete description of all the medical discussions involving Addison, her family, and her doctors.
Those details should not be invented.
What is established is that the injuries were devastating and that the leg could not be saved.
The medical outcome would permanently change Addison's life.
She had survived an attack that could have killed her in the water.
Now she faced losing part of her body.
The decision was not a sign that the rescue had failed.
It reflected the seriousness of the injury and the medical limits of repairing the damage.
Addison was alive.
But her recovery would require adapting to an entirely different future.
Chapter 7: July 6 β The Surgery That Changed Her Life
On July 6, 2022, six days after the shark attack, Addison underwent surgery to amputate her right leg above the knee.