Scottish Suzanne Cassidy was sucked into the propeller blades of a speedboat that had just pulled her through the water on an inflatable donut ring.
The 26-year-old childcare worker only survived by grabbing onto the side of the boat and twisting her body as the razor-sharp blades sliced into her leg.
Lucky escape: Suzanne Cassidy got sucked into the propellers of a pleasure boat in Ibiza. She said she was lucky to be alive
Friends saved her life by pulling her aboard and helping her get to the hospital when she started bleeding blood from a wound near her knee that required several stitches. She also suffered a badly broken leg.
She is recovering from emergency surgery at Can Misses Hospital in Ibiza Town.
Her tibia protruded from her right leg in the accident and the broken bone had to be reattached.
Suzanne, from Glasgow, arrived in Ibiza just 11 weeks ago to start a summer job in a bar.
She said, ‘I’m just glad I’m alive. I really thought I was going to die.
“I immediately knew the danger I was in when I felt my leg being sucked into the propellers by the force of the engine.
Somehow I found the strength in my upper body to spin myself around and away from danger.
“My friends pulled me back aboard the boat and that’s when I saw the blood.
“I felt the throbbing in my leg where it was broken, but I was running on adrenaline at the time and I didn’t want to look at it, so I only found out the bone was sticking out of my leg after I came round from the surgery.
“It was a four and a half hour operation. Friends have asked me how many pins and stitches they put in my leg, but I just don’t know.’
Accident: Suzanne was rescued by friends who pulled her aboard the boat at the San Antonio party resort and rushed her to the hospital
The accident happened around 4 p.m. on Sunday in a pretty cove near San Antonio’s party resort called Cala Conta.
Suzanne had jumped in to swim to a larger boat anchored nearby after being towed through the sea in an inflatable ring with friends.
She said: ‘We had gone out as part of a party for a friend’s 30th birthday party with other friends and my boss at the bar where I work.
“Five of us had just finished our turn on the ring and we were swapping with other friends who were waiting in the bigger boat for them to go out for their turn.
‘It all happened so fast. I don’t know if our boat moved or if I jumped into the sea too close to the engine, but I don’t recall hearing a warning.
“I’ve been told I’ll be in hospital for another four or five days and I won’t be able to fly for a while.
‘I’m probably going back to Scotland at the end of September, if I were to fly back anyway.
“The doctors have told me I will walk again without a limp. And I love to dance, so in time I will look forward to dancing again.”
Local Guardia Civil agents have launched an investigation into the incident.
The owners of the boat involved in the accident could not be reached for comment.
Suzanne, who is working in Ibiza this summer, was enjoying her birthday on the island when the accident happened
.