Aspen high school student hospitalized after shark attack in Belize

An Aspen teen was seriously injured in a shark attack while diving in Belize.

Annabelle Carlson, 15, had just finished diving with a tour group and her family while on vacation in Belize when she decided to jump back into the water for a quick dip. according to a GoFundMe page set up by a family friend.

“Then the unimaginable meeting took place. There is a 1 in 11.5 million chance that this could happen,” the fundraising page said. “That unimaginable encounter was a shark attack. It was a very aggressive, very traumatic, terror-filled fight for her life.”

The family friend, Aja Jewell, said Carlson was “severely injured” in the attack, but did not indicate how the teen was injured.

According to Jewell, emergency responders in Belize airlifted Carlson to a trauma medical center in Belize City. After Carlson was stabilized, she was flown back to the United States, where she remains hospitalized.