More to fear than sharks this year

"I immediately put my hand on my face and blood was gushing out," said Shoemaker, 50, a housecleaner from Toledo, Ohio, who was vacationing in the Bay area this week. She needed 25 stitches. She is on painkillers and antibiotics and cannot eat solid food.
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She stanched the blood with her beach towel and went to Palms of Pasadena Hospital in St. Petersburg for treatment, which included a consultation with a plastic surgeon.

The gash on her left cheek is 3 inches long, Shoemaker said by telephone from her home in Toledo. Doctors told her they were concerned about the accident's impact on her salivary glands and the tiny bones that help her smile, she said.

Never let your guard down while out in the Gulf -- it seems absolutely everything is out to kill you.