Man survives shark attack, with help from his friends

Video: Man reveals giant scar after vicious shark attack

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2. Closed captioning of: Man reveals giant scar after vicious shark attack

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   >>> details on a terrifying shark attack off the coast of florida . the victim and the friends who saved him are speaking out now. nbc's kerry sanders is in anna maria with more. kerry, good morning.

   >> reporter: good morning. the shark that attacked this young man is among the most aggressive predators out here, a bull shark , and this one was a monster. nine feet long, 400 to 500 pounds with jaws and teeth just like this, extremely sharp. this is from a similarly sized shark . in this case the victim was bobbing in the water near his boat. on florida 's gulf coast seven friends headed out on the water for a day of fun, a routine they often document, filming dolphins as they ride the bow wave , catching moments of each other. as they free dived some of the most prolific spear fishing grounds in the gulf of mexico . that's a three-foot long kobia and that is c.j. dangling his fins in the water. the day this 21-year-old florida native was attacked by the bull shark he had already caught a dozen hog fish. c.j. was bobbing at the surface, the thrashing fish he caught already onboard the boat. about ten feet away two girls out for the trip were on floating chairs when this shark bit down on his leg with its razor-sharp teeth.

   >> i looked down and saw a shark on my leg.

   >> reporter: and you said?

   >> i let go of my gun and hit it off with both my hands. i can't remember how hard i punched. must have punched pretty hard because it let go fast.

   >> reporter: c.j. says he yelled " shark " as a nine-foot bull like this one released its grip on his left leg. the girls who were in the water scrambled from the floating chairs swimming to join the others still on the boat. max and conner watched it all unfold.

   >> as soon as the shark had grabbed c.j., he kind of flailed once, got pulled under for just a couple seconds, and we looked at each other and kind of like, you know, made eye contact, wow. this is really happening.

   >> reporter: and that's when the next unexpected twist happened. conner , who has grown up around sharks, jumped in to save his friend.

   >> i think what's going through my mind is you're a little crazy in that moment because you weren't thinking about jumping in. you just jumped in.

   >> right. there wasn't no thinking about oh, man there is a shark in there looking to bite you. there wasn't time to think about it. it was just, got bit get in the water, get him back, stop the bleeding. get him in.

   >> reporter: conner and max used a rope as turniquet as kiera dialed 911.

   >> the whole back of the boat, we were all just blood. i thought for sure he wasn't going to make it.

   >> reporter: it took more than five minutes to get to shore to paramedics. c.j. had lost half his blood. but somehow he remained conscious and talkative.

   >> conner and i tried to calm him down and tell him it was just a minor wound but he said, no. i felt my femur. i know it's bad.

   >> reporter: this doctor has studied sharks for more than three decades.

   >> quite often when you have a bite and release like this on a leg the shark gets the femoral artery and the people bleed out before they can get medical help. this guy was really lucky.

   >> reporter: lucky to have friends who didn't panic and lucky conner was there thinking only of the friend he's had since kindergarten.

   >> my friends saved my life.

   >> reporter: when c.j. made it to the emergency room , he was lucky because the doctor who was on call had just returned from afghanistan and not only knew how to save his life but also his leg. and if you're wondering about these shark type teeth, how many stitches that c.j. wound up with? well, the doctors say they lost count after the first hundred.

   >> oh, my. kerry sanders , great story. well told. we wish that boy every luck.

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