REMEMBER WHEN

GOLD COAST BULLETIN Wednesday, May 28, 2014

BIANCA Freeman had seen plenty of scary things during her time as a barmaid in Surfers Paradise.

But it was when she stepped 500m outside the entertainment precinct that Ms Freeman’s life was finally put at risk.

Ms Freeman, 29, was attacked by a bull shark in the Nerang River behind the building where she lives, Condor.

She was socialising with her friend Rhiannon Bonacchi after having a few drinks when she fell into the water about 9.30pm.

A few seconds later Ms Freeman screamed out “something bit me”.

“I was not sure what was happening,” she said. “It was such a surreal experience.”

A shocked Ms Bonacchi acted quickly and reached for her friend to pull her out of the water.

But before she could get to her, the shark came back twice more, leaving deep scratch marks as evidence.

Ms Bonacchi cleaned her friend’s wounds, which were bleeding badly, before helping Ms Freeman to hold closed the worst gash on her left thigh.

Then Ms Bonacchi called the Queensland Ambulance Service.

“She was amazing,” Ms Freeman said. “It was worse for her than it was for me, because she was able to see it all happening.”

Ms Freeman was transported to the 24-hour medical practice in Surfers Paradise, where a doctor put 12 stitches in her legs.

Shark research scientist Dr Jonathan Werry said Ms Freeman’s wound appeared to have been inflicted by a single bite.

“The wound is pretty consistent with a bull shark,” he said.