Huge wave causes woman to lose prosthetic ‘beach leg’ during Myrtle Beach vacation

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WMBF) – A woman vacationing in Myrtle Beach has an interesting request for fellow beachgoers: If you see a fake leg give her a call.

Jennifer Rhyne from Ellerbe, North Carolina has a great sense of humor about what happened to her Wednesday, but she is hoping that her story will reunite her with her “beach leg.”

Rhyne told her story to WMBF News over the phone.

She lost her leg about 25 years ago in a car accident, and for 20 of those years she has not been able to go into the ocean.

Rhyne has a prosthetic leg that she uses every day, but she’s not able to go into the water with it.

It wasn’t until a few years ago she got a specially-made prosthetic leg that allows her to go into the ocean because it doesn’t rust.

Well on Wednesday, Rhyne did just that with her family.

She told WMBF News her and her husband were walking out into the ocean near Lakewood Campgrounds with their 3-year-old daughter. Rhyne went to pick up her daughter when a huge wave came out of nowhere and hit her. The wave caused her and her daughter to fall over, and it knocked her prosthetic leg off, causing it to be swept away.

“I guess the wave just hit my leg in the right spot,” Rhyne said.

She said everyone on the beach helped her and her daughter get up after the wave crashed down on her.

Now she’s hoping that someone will spot her “beach leg” and return it to her.

A Myrtle Beach police officer even saw her story and messaged her to tell her he will go diving on his day off on Friday and try to search for it.

Rhyne and her family will be in Myrtle Beach until Saturday.

If anyone spots her “beach leg,” she asks them to call her at 910-206-2072.