Shark attack: Cerritos woman recovering in Hawaii to fly home

A Cerritos woman who has been recovering in a Hawaii hospital since she was attacked by a shark is expected to fly home Tuesday.

Evvone Cashman told the International Science Times that she won’t let last week’s grisly incident keep her on dry land forever.

“I hear it’s very rare [to be bitten by a shark],” Cashman told the site. “It would have to be even more rare for it to happen a second time. I can’t imagine not snorkeling again...and I don’t want to be afraid of the water.”

Cashman, 56, was bitten Wednesday by a large shark off Ulua Beach in Wailea, which is on the south shore of Maui, according to the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources.

She was the second shark attack victim in Hawaii in less than a week.

Local resident Kiowa Gatewood was bitten by a shark off White Plains Beach in Oahu just a few days earlier, according to local media reports. Gatewood was surfing at the time of the attack.

Cashman, on the other hand, was taking a morning swim in about 10 feet of choppy, murky water when the shark attacked her. She’s now recovering in the hospital.

“I must have had my hands up in front of my face. I think my head was above water, if I remember correctly. I don’t know because it happened so fast. I didn’t see him coming. I didn’t see him leave. He just came and hit me hard and bit me hard and I just took off to the shore as fast as I could,” Cashman told KHON-TV Channel 2.

“He only bit once, and he let go right away,” she told reporters.

She swam to shore, where bystanders used towels to stem the flow of blood, Cashman told Hawaii reporters.

She received a 15-inch wound from the middle of her spine to her neck. She was also injured on her chin and both hands. She underwent surgery and said afterward that a doctor said the shark was huge.

“He thinks according to the bites and where they are and what they look like, it was probably about a 25-foot shark. That was his guess,” Cashman said.

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Joseph.serna@latimes.com

@josephserna