Preparing for her first acting role in a high school production, “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” theatre junior Emily Riggs spent most of her days before auditions in August prioritizing her choreography and movements, ensuring that she could run for a long period of time, make her cues, and perform her dances.

Just a few days later, she was in the hospital, unable to dance, jump, or even walk.  

“I was fully conscious and my adrenaline was going crazy, so once I was in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, (it felt like) my foot didn’t hurt anymore,” Riggs said. 

Grey clouds smothered the Florida sun Sept. 7 as Riggs dipped into the waters at Cato’s Bridge, Tequesta. Surrounded by friends from her church, she dove into the sea amid the pouring rain.

By 3 p.m., Riggs was swimming in the tide, the water below clouding over. As she swam back to the shore, her legs invisible in the crashing waves, she suddenly hit her foot against something hard. A burning sensation flared up immediately. When her leg finally came into clear vision, all Riggs saw was blood coursing from her foot.

“At first, I guessed I ran into fire coral,” Riggs said. “But it was highly (likely) a shark. In all honesty, my first thought was, ‘How am I going to swim back to the shore? How am I going to walk further?’ All the logistics started flooding through my mind.” 

According to the Florida Museum of Natural History, a total of 88 shark attacks occurred worldwide in 2024. Recently, in July 2025, there have been four survivors in Florida alone, according to CBS12 news. While wildlife such as sharks have been spotted at Cato’s Bridge, there have been no reports of shark attacks. Riggs said that sharks were reported around the bridge the morning she got bitten.  

The next moment Riggs recalled, she was back on the sand as her friends tended to her injury.  One used her T-shirt to slow the bleeding, another called the ambulance, and a third used a medical foam to disinfect her wounds, telling her to breathe. 

“When I was out and sitting and they were calling people, so much stuff was happening, it (the pain) wasn’t the first thing on my mind,” Riggs said. “It hurt once my friends put a shirt on it to help stop the bleeding. Once the paramedics came, and they started to bandage it, it hurt really badly. I couldn’t walk on, so they carried me out to the ambulance.” 

10 minutes after the accident, Riggs arrived at the hospital. There, she met with her mother and her mother’s boyfriend. Riggs received 11 stitches in her leg and was fitted with a boot. A podiatrist informed her that a tendon was severed from the bite and that she would need surgery in the future to reconnect the tissue. 

“I remember I was in the hospital for a long time,” Riggs said. “I got numbing cream and then a bunch of numbing shots, which were so incredibly painful.”

In the midst of the accident, Riggs said that it was “nice to have friends with her who each played their part,” one being theatre junior Hannah Gordon Rivero, who was present during the accident and during her recovery process.

“We were all just trying to be calm so we didn’t make the situation worse or scare her,” Rivero said. “It was all just really shocking because the bite came out of the blue. I tried to be there during the recovery. I rode with her in the ambulance to the hospital, and then when I would see her at school, I would walk her to class and carry her stuff.”

A week of home rest followed her accident. However, for Riggs, that meant missing rehearsal for “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” set to release a month after her accident. Riggs has been involved in theatre since 6th grade, typically working in stage management or lighting design. After being cast in the ensemble for the fall production of “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” Riggs said that acting would allow her to “showcase different aspects” of herself.

“It’s definitely fun to show a different side of me,” Riggs said. “I feel like I can kind of become a different person, and it’s nice to have a different (version of) myself in a way.”

Due to her absences and injury, Riggs was unable to perform the same way she used to, including her movement and ability to dance on stage. Riggs stated that the directors of the play had done “so much to help support (her).” This included making adjustments and alterations to her performance, which meant adding more breaks and making changes to the choreography and movement.

“I was definitely more mobile,” Riggs said. “Now, however, I have to take more breaks in between runs. I don’t go full out every run, and I definitely can’t run for as long or as fast as I could before. Getting around backstage and running to make my cue has definitely been the biggest struggle.”

Riggs said that the rehearsal process “has been hard” in terms of moving and dancing as much as she could, reporting pain during rehearsals when wearing costumes with high-heeled shoes.

“She hasn’t been as mobile as she has been before, but she has definitely pushed through to make sure our show looks great, while being great at communicating with us what she needs,” stage manager and theatre junior Charlotte Wooley said. 

Despite her shark bite, Riggs continues to perform in “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” as an ensemble member. Rivero said that while Riggs should rest, she trusts that the show and crew did not put Riggs and her foot at risk of stress, believing that Riggs would not let anyone down by not being able to perform. Her surgery is to be scheduled after the show is released.

“I think it shows how much she cares about others and her commitment level,” Rivero said. “If she says she’s gonna do something, she tries to follow through, which I think is a very good quality she has.”