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Essay On Soul Surfer

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“Life is a lot like surfing…When you get caught in the impact zone, you’ve got to just get back up. Because you never know what may be over the next wave” (“Soul Surfer”). Bethany Hamilton endured a very traumatic experience in her life, and this is why she is known as the “Soul Surfer.” The difficulties she faced and overcame were truly remarkable.
Bethany is a professional surfer who was born on February 8, 1990 on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. She started surfing at the age of five (Sandler 28). She began competing at the age of eight, and her first competition was at the Rell Sunn Menehune Surf Contest in Oahu (Sandler 28). Bethany’s family did not make very much money so they struggled to keep her competing (O’Shei 10). She was so…show more content…
He then used the surf leash, the rope that is used to attach the surfer’s leg to the surfboard, as a tourniquet (17). When paramedics saw her, they were certain she would die from the amount of blood loss she suffered; as an athlete, she was able to persevere (“13-Year-Old”). They measured her loss at a total of seventy percent (Sandler 19). She was rushed to the hospital where her father was preparing for knee surgery, so the doctors cleared his room immediately to make room for her (Sandler 29). As Bethany underwent emergency surgery, she fell in and out of consciousness (18). The doctors had to stitch the wound to seal it up (19), and Bethany had to stay in the hospital for a week (29).
Injuries like the one she experienced are incredibly rare. In the United States alone, it is estimated that at least two million people are missing one or more limbs, and about 185,000 amputations occur annually. Fifty-four percent of the population receive amputations because of vascular diseases like diabetes. Forty-five percent get amputations because of trauma. Less than two percent get amputations due to cancer (“Limb Loss”). People are 15,000 times more likely to die in a car accident than get bitten by a shark. People are thirty times more likely to die from getting struck by lightning. Losing a limb would make everyday tasks very difficult to accomplish. It would be hard to get dressed, eat, or even tie shoes
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