It was an alarming sight for beachgoers when a woman walked out of the water with a nurse shark biting a meaty portion of her right forearm. 
 
 And no matter what she did, the 2-foot shark refused to release its bite. Even when it died. 
 
 Paramedics ultimately took the woman — with the dead shark still attached to her arm — to Boca Raton Regional Hospital on Sunday afternoon, according to Boca Raton Ocean Rescue. 
 
 The woman was in stable condition, officials said. 
 
 "The shark wouldn't give up," said Shlomo Jacob, of Boca Raton, among the beachgoers who looked on. "It was barely breathing but it wasn't letting go of her arm, like it was stuck to her or something." 
 
 A nurse shark bit a woman on the beach Sunday afternoon in Boca Raton. 
 
 As the commotion unfolded, swimmers scampered out of the water, suddenly unsure of what other dangers may lurk. 
 
 Ocean Rescue Capt. Clint Tracy saw the woman and the shark as they were put into an ambulance at Red Reef Park about 1:30 p.m. "I have never seen anything like it," Tracy said. "Never even heard of anything like this." 
 
 Beachgoers said one or more people were antagonizing the nurse shark in the water. Tracy, the Ocean Rescue captain, said he didn't know how the woman came in contact with it. 
 
 Nate Pachter, 11, of Boca Raton, said he and his cousin were snorkeling when he saw the group "holding the shark by its tail. They were messing with it." 
 
 Courtesy Boca Raton Fire Rescue A woman at the beach in Boca Raton near the 1400 block of North Ocean was was bitten by a small nurse shark on May 15, 2016. A woman at the beach in Boca Raton near the 1400 block of North Ocean was was bitten by a small nurse shark on May 15, 2016. (Courtesy Boca Raton Fire Rescue) (Courtesy Boca Raton Fire Rescue) 
 
 "Sharks are like the most humane thing ever," Nate said later, as he sat with his parents on the beach. "So it wouldn't bite them if they hadn't been messing with it." 
 
 It was about 1:20 p.m. when the woman, in a turquoise-colored two-piece, appeared near Lifeguard Station No. 8, with the shark attached to her. 
 
 The woman remained calm, and there was little blood, according to Tracy. 
 
 A male companion was by the woman's side holding the shark, but as the minutes passed and the crowd grew, she became unsettled. When paramedics arrived, they gave her oxygen, witnesses said. 
 
 A splint board was used to support the woman's arm and the shark as she was placed on the stretcher to take her to the hospital, Tracy said. 
 
 The woman's name hasn't been released, so she couldn't be reached for comment. 
 
 Lifeguard Dylan Narcowich was on duty in Tower No. 8 and responded. He said he previously had seen the woman and her companion swimming near a submerged rock pile about 60 feet from shore. 
 
 "There's a rock pile where she was at and there are two more over there where they kind of hang out," said Narcowich, referring to the sharks that occasionally swim near the submerged formations. 
 
 Nurse sharks are common in offshore Florida waters and can grow up to 14 feet in length. 
 
 They are able to breathe while remaining still by pumping water through their mouths and out their gills, and are sometimes seen stationary on the ocean floor, according to researchers. 
 
 They are also known for having strong jaws filled with thousands of tiny, serrated teeth. 
 
 "Knowingly or not, people swim near nurse sharks every day without incident," according to the National Park Service. "Attacks on humans are rare but not unknown and a clamping bite typically results from a diver or fisherman antagonizing the shark with hook, spear, net or hand. 
 
 "The bite reflex is such that it may be some minutes before a quietly re-immersed nurse shark will relax and release its tormentor," according to a National Park Service brochure prepared for visitors to Florida waters. "The small teeth seldom penetrate deeply but are razor sharp. 
 
 "Holding still reduces damage to both shark and man. Leaving sharks alone is the best tactic." 
 
 bballou@sun-sentinel, 954-495-5310 or @briballou ||||| BOCA RATON, Fla. (AP) — News reports say a 23-year-old woman was bitten by a small nurse shark in Boca Raton. 
 
 The South Florida Sun-Sentinel http://bit.ly/22bGTSu reported the woman was taken to the hospital by ambulance Sunday with the shark still attached to her arm. 
 
 A spokesperson for the Boca Raton Ocean Rescue told the newspaper the woman remained calm and there was a little blood. A splint board was used to support the woman's arm and the shark as she lay on the stretcher. 
 
 The Boca Raton Regional Hospital operator told the AP that the woman had been treated and was in the process of being released Sunday afternoon. ||||| The two young victims of Sunday's back-to-back shark attacks lost their arms in the brutal clutches of the sharks off the coast of North Carolina, but both appear to be taking their injuries in stride. 
 
 Hunter Treschel, a 16-year-old from Colorado Springs, Colo., showed his poise in his first interview Tuesday from a bed in New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington, just 35 miles from the Oak Island beach where the pair got chomped by sharks in incidents a mere 90 minutes apart from one another. The teen "didn't see it coming," he said in YouTube videos posted by the hospital. 
 
 "That was the first I saw it, when it was biting up my left arm, kind of," said Treschel. "And then it got that off, eventually." 
 
 The young man is actually able to laugh about the horrifying shark bite that took off most of his left arm and he thanked emergency personnel and hospital staff, along with the messages of support he's received from all over. He now faces the choice of trying to move forward with his life undeterred or let his life be ruined by the loss of his limb, he says. 
 
 Hunter Treschel lost his left arm, just below the shoulder, in a shark attack in North Carolina. (GoFundMe) The 16-year-old says he "didn't see it coming." (New Handover Regional Med Center) 
 
 "Out of those two, there's really only one that I would actually choose to do, and that's to try to fight and live a normal life with the cards that I've been dealt." 
 
 Meanwhile, the other one of the two young beachgoers who was first injured on Sunday received some encouraging news Tuesday. 
 
 Kiersten Yow, 12, is in stable condition at Children’s Hospital at the University of North Carolina after Sunday’s traumatic encounter. 
 
 “She has a long road to recovery that will include surgeries and rehabilitation, but her doctors at UNC expect she will keep her leg, and for that we are grateful,” parents Brian and Laurie Yow said in a statement. 
 
 Kiersten was in waist-deep water off the coast of Oak Island when she was attacked. The shark ripped off her left arm below the elbow and badly injured her left leg. 
 
 Beachgoers rushed to her aid, and emergency responders called in a medical chopper to fly her to New Hanover for emergency surgery. She was later transferred to Children’s Hospital. 
 
 Kiersten Yow, 12, lost part of her arm to a shark attack off a beach Oak Island, N.C., on Sunday. Her left leg was badly injured in the incident, but her parents say that doctors are confident that they can save it. (Facebook) 
 
 Oak Island doesn’t have lifeguards, and shark attacks are rare, authorities said. 
 
 “In the 16 years I’ve been here on this island in the fire department, I’ve never had a shark attack — and it was two,” fire Chief Chris Anselmo told the Daily News. 
 
 He called the shark encounters a “freak accident” and said locals in the coastal town were pulling for the injured boy and girl. 
 
 Bystanders use a leash from a boogie board to help stanch the bleeding after a 12-year-old girl lost her left arm during a shark attack Sunday in Oak Island, N.C. (Steve Bouser/AP) Emergency responders assist a 12-year-old girl on Sunday after a shark attack in Oak Island, N.C. (Steve Bouser/AP) Authorities said the girl, shown, and a boy who was attacked could have died if not for a fast response from witnesses and paramedics. (Steve Bouser/AP) 
 
 “These kids didn’t do anything wrong,” Anselmo said. “It’s just a tragic accident that happened.” 
 
 ON A MOBILE DEVICE? SEE THE FIRST VIDEO HERE AND THE SECOND VIDEO HERE. 
 
 
 
 With TOBIAS SALINGER
– A Florida woman hospitalized for a shark bite Sunday didn't need to describe the shark that bit her—because it was still attached to her arm. The 23-year-old woman had been bitten on the right arm by a small nurse shark that wouldn't let go even after a bystander killed it, the Palm Beach Post reports. A Boca Raton Regional Hospital spokesperson tells the AP the woman was treated and released on Sunday afternoon, having presumably had the 2-foot shark removed from her arm. Witnesses say before the bite, the shark had been antagonized, possibly by the woman and her companion, who were seen near a submerged rock pile where nurse sharks are known to hang out. People were "holding the shark by its tail. They were messing with it," 11-year-old Nate Pachter, who had been snorkeling nearby, tells the South Florida Sun Sentinel. The species has a strong bite and large numbers of very sharp teeth, but it is so laid-back it is "considered the 'couch potato' of the shark world," according to the National Park Service. "Attacks on humans are rare but not unknown, and a clamping bite typically results from a diver or fisherman antagonizing the shark with hook, spear, net, or hand," an NPS fact page states. "The bite reflex is such that it may be some minutes before a quietly re-immersed nurse shark will relax and release its tormentor." (On the other side of the country, countless tiny red crabs are washing up on California's beaches.)