Girl, parents share story of shark bite off N.C. coast

Six-year-old Lucy Mangum isn't holding a grudge.

The North Carolina girl who suffered a serious shark bite last week while wading in the surf at Ocracoke told a national TV audience that she still likes the island and she's not mad at the fish.

"I forgive him," Lucy told Ann Curry of NBC's "Today" show on Tuesday morning.

The girl and her parents did interviews Tuesday from Pitt County Memorial Hospital in Greenville, N.C.

Lucy, who has a cast on her right leg, squirmed in a wheelchair and played with a stuffed animal on her lap while her parents answered questions from Curry and Robin Roberts of ABC's "Good Morning America."

Lucy's mother was about 10 feet away from her and her little sister on July 19 as the girls rode foam boards on the waves.

"I heard her scream, so I immediately turned towards her," Jordan Mangum told Roberts.

She saw the shark and headed toward her girls.

Lucy said she felt the shark bite, and "it felt like it stayed there. I only saw its tail."

"It hadn't really crossed my mind that she had been bitten," Jordan Mangum said. "I just wanted to get her and her sister out of the water."

Craig Mangum, Lucy's father, was a bit farther out in the water and made his way toward them.

As they got out of the water, Lucy asked her parents if they could say a prayer "for my leg to heal."

When they reached the beach, Craig could see Jordan's hand covering Lucy's wound.

"It was a pretty significant wound," he said.

The girl was flown to the Greenville hospital after the attack.

After physical therapy, her father said, Lucy should "function pretty well, dance, run and play like she should."

The family lives in the Triangle area of North Carolina, and the run-in with the shark won't keep them from visiting the beach again, they said.

"We love Ocracoke," Craig Mangum said.

Cindy Clayton, (757) 446-2377, cindy.clayton@pilotonline.com