Dolphin nearly bites off woman's foot, bystanders save her life

Claire Bye would not have been alive today had she not been flown to the UK after a dolphin nearly bit her foot off earlier in January.

Bye, 28, was swimming in a river in Santa Rosa de Yacuma, Bolivia, when a pink river dolphin attacked her and left her fighting for her life on January 3. Her foot had been partially severed by the dolphin. She was immediately rushed to a local hospital, where she received 32 stitches for her wound.

But her condition did not improve over the next few days due to a lack of facilities and hygiene at the local hospital, according to The Independent.

She developed a life-threatening infection and was flown to Bolivia's capital, La Paz, for further treatment. Two weeks later, she was flown back home to the UK so she could undergo skin flap surgery.

She spent another two weeks at Southmead Hospital, Bristol after the surgery and is now doing much better than she had expected.

"There were mostly children swimming in the water with the dolphins. I saw one child try to pick up a dolphin, which made me feel uneasy, so I decided to get out of the water and onto the pontoon," said Bye, while narrating the moments before the attack. "I remember seeing the dolphin out of the corner of my eye, and then it suddenly lunged at me. It wasn't the cute-looking dolphins we're used to seeing, it had a huge beak with a mouthful of spiky teeth," she told the publication.

She explained how the dolphin did not leave her foot for 20 seconds and added that she thought she would lose her foot or her life. She added how the people nearby tried to pull her up, but the dolphin just would not let go of her feet. Bye is still recovering and has been unable to resume work.

The attack may have damaged her foot, but not her spirit. She hopes that she will be able to enjoy swimming again in the future. However, she has no plans to swim with dolphins.

It is extremely rare for a dolphin to attack humans as they are a friendly species. According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the pink river dolphin is found in the Amazon and Orinoco river basins in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, and Venezuela.

They are said to be the largest freshwater dolphin species, growing up to nine feet long. They use echolocation to find their way through muddy waters. Some indigenous groups even believe that they are semi-divine creatures, according to a report in The Hindu.