"She (Paige Winter) wants everyone to know that sharks are still good people," her mother wrote

A teenager lost part of her leg after being attacked by a shark while swimming off the coast of the southeastern United States, her family said on Monday.

Paige Winter, 17, was spending the day at the Fort Macon beach in North Carolina when she encountered the shark around noon.

Her father, a paramedic, entered the water and battled the fish until it retreated, local media reported.

Winter was airlifted to a hospital with deep lacerations to her left leg and hands.

"Due to the severity of the attack, amputation of the left leg above the knee was inevitable," Winter's family said on a GoFundMe page that has already raised more than $11,000 in donations for her recovery from the attack.

"I know I have a long road to recovery, which includes additional surgeries. I will continue to stay positive and be thankful that it was not worse," Winter said in a statement released to the local ABC network.

On Facebook, Paige's mother Marcy Goodrum Winter wrote that her daughter had come out of surgery and that, although she was still a bit drugged, had managed to keep her sense of humor.

"She wants everyone to know that sharks are still good people," her mother wrote.

The chances of being attacked by a shark are nearly one in four million, according to the International Wildlife Museum in Tucson, Arizona, but it does happen.

Last September, a swimmer died from an apparent shark bite off the coast of Massachusetts in the northeastern United States.