Tennessee mom Cierra Stockard had to cut her spring break short after a freak accident while swimming with dolphins. Though she said she is stable now, she is taking the opportunity to warn others to be cautious.
During a trip with friends on March 16, Stockard chose to participate in the “Dolphin Royal Swim” at Dolphin Cove Jamaica, a marine park with several locations across Jamaica, according to its website.
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Users can be “towed by two friendly dolphins or feel the energy of these social marine mammals while they foot-push you to then splash into the water at maximum speed,” according to the website.
According to Stockard, she slipped into the water and landed on a dolphin’s fin while the dolphins were pushing her to stand.
She said in an interview on ‘Good Morning America,’ “The dolphin on my left side was kind of swimming a little bit faster than the dolphin on my right side, so it made me unbalanced. I just knew I was gonna fall into the water. I just didn’t expect to hit the fin.”
The mother of two described how hard she landed on the dolphin’s fin: “It felt like I was in a car accident because it hit me so hard. I started panicking.”
She had a grapefruit-sized hematoma from the collision with the dolphin’s fin.
Stockard said that after the incident, the dolphins appeared to try to help her.
“They came and rubbed against me and stopped their bodies from swimming to be right beside me,” she said.
Stockard, who has sickle cell anemia, told “GMA” that she was sent to a local hospital and had surgery.
She returned to Tennessee on March 24 after being hospitalized in Jamaica, and she was admitted to a local hospital for further treatment.
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