Debbie Shoemaker was swimming in the Gulf of Mexico when a pelican appeared all of a sudden and attacked her. Her visits to Treasure Islands became every year’s ritual. She used to visit this place and swim in the Gulf of Mexico, but she never witnessed anything similar to the incident which happened Thursday.

The pelican, which died after the collision, crashed into her face, leaving a wide gash on her cheek. Terrified, the woman screamed for help, as there was no one in the water swimming nearby. Some people on the beach heard her and called 911. The 50-year woman, victim of the diving pelican attack, was immediately hospitalized and required 20 stitches to close the three-inch gash in her face.

“It was like somebody took their fist as hard as they could and smashed it into the side of your face,” Shoemaker said, according to MyFox TampaBay.

“The event just keeps happening in my mind over and over and over,” she added. “It could've gotten my eyes. It could've gotten my throat. It could've knocked me out in the water.”

“My first thought was a sting ray or a jelly fish,” Barbara Hatcher told her close friend, according to MyFox Tampa Bay.

The city fire chief said he had never heard of a diving pelican attack a person. Doctors said they never saw anything like it. An expert said the bird was diving for fish and attacked the woman by accident.

The woman returned to Ohio, her home town, where she may face plastic surgery.