Paige Winter was in high spirits and stable condition at Vidant Medical Center, despite having just had her leg and several fingers amputated. Winter survived a scary encounter with a shark, due in part to the intervention of her father Charlie, a Marine who was in the water with her at the time.

Family friend Brandon Bersch told NBC’s Today that Winter and her father "were standing in waist-deep water and chatting and then Paige suddenly got pulled under." Witnesses say that Charlie Winter punched the shark in the face five times before it released its grip on his daughter. Officials with the Atlantic Beach Fire Department confirmed the account, saying that she sustained “deep lacerations to her leg, pelvic and hand areas.”

Nevertheless, the traumatic experience didn’t take away Paige’s sense of humor. According to her mother’s Facebook post, Paige “wants everyone to know that sharks are still good people.”

In a statement on the GoFundMe page to assist with medical expenses, the Winter family thanked "the individuals on the beach who helped, and her heroic father who saved her life." Added Paige’s grandmother, "Thank God our son was with her."

Potential Preaching Angle: Sometimes God allows us to wrestle so that we can know what it's like to overcome, but even so, God's love and protection are still close by, ready to rescue us from calamity.

Cindy Boren, “A dad punched a shark ‘in the face five times’ to save his daughter, who lost a leg in attack” Washington Post (6-4-19)