GRAPHIC: Shark bites woman in Ft Lauderdale

A south Florida woman is recovering, after a shark took a giant bite of her leg in Ft. Lauderdale over the weekend.

Jessica Vaughn, 22, was rushed to the hospital Sunday when witnesses screaming and bleeding.

The victim's boyfriend said he and a group of friends were inner tubing in the Intracoastal Waterway, near Bayshore Drive in Fort Lauderdale.

"We were tubing, and I was just in the water for about 25 minutes," said Peter Hogge. "We stopped, she had a life vest on, she went in, another friend went in with her, she got to her tube and 'boom.'"

Hogge said his girlfriend was smacked in the face by a fin, and then watched in horror as he saw what appeared to be a shark pierce its jaws into her right leg.

"I'd seen a splash go off, and she started screaming," said Nick Russo, who was in the water with the victim. "I saw her leg come up and her skin flap over, and I knew it wasn't good."

According to Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue, Vaughn's friends immediately sprang into action, pulling her out of the water and onto a nearby dock.

Looking back at the water, Hogge said he saw what was unmistakably a shark swimming away. "It was probably about a 4-foot bull shark," he said. "I saw it. I looked back and I saw it. I fish in the Intracoastal all the time."

Vaughn was rushed into surgery at Broward Health Medical Center.

Her friends said she's in good spirits and grateful the injury wasn't more serious.

"Really, it's the last thing we could ever think [to have happened]," he said. "It's actually kind of funny, cause just before she jumped in, she said, ''Oh, I'm afraid of the water, I'm afraid something is going to be out there to get me.'"