Teen shark victim gets prosthetic arm
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Bethany Hamilton
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LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Three months after losing her left arm in a shark attack, teen surfer Bethany Hamilton received a prosthetic limb.
The 13-year-old Hawaiian, who has already returned to competitive surfing, is on a whirlwind national tour.
She learned to snowboard in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, taped an episode of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in Chicago, and gave interviews to Glamour magazine and "Entertainment Tonight" in Los Angeles, where she also received the prosthetic arm Saturday.
"The best thing was my last day of snowboarding," Hamilton told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Saturday night before she went to a concert by teen singer Hilary Duff.
"I was getting better and went on real hard runs," she said. "It was a lot of fun."
Hamilton returned to surfing competition two weeks ago, placing fifth in her age group in the Open Women Division of a National Scholastic Surfing Association meet in Hawaii. She was a top amateur surfer before the shark attack and was expected to turn pro.
The teenager nearly died when she was attacked by the shark October 31 while surfing off Kauai. She lost more than half her blood and all but about four inches of her arm. A friend's father, who was surfing nearby, used a surf leash as a tourniquet and fellow surfers were able to tow her to shore.
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