A 10-year-old boy had part of his leg amputated after he was bitten by a shark while snorkeling on vacation in the Florida Keys, his family said.
Jameson Reeder Jr. was attacked at Looe Key Reef on Saturday, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said in a statement.
A Facebook post by his uncle Joshua Reeder said Jameson was going on a boat trip with his parents and three other siblings and snorkeling in a shallow reef when he “received a crushing blow below his knee” which they believed was a eight-foot-long bull shark.
Jameson was able to hold on to a noodle float and was saved by his father, who put a tourniquet on his leg and waved down another, faster boat, which raced the family ashore.
The boy was then flown to Miami Children’s Hospital, where a medical team saved his life but was forced to amputate the leg below the knee.
“He is now out of surgery and resting,” Joshua Reeder wrote, crediting Jameson’s strong religious beliefs with helping him survive the ordeal.
A GiveSendGo appeal from the family for financial support had surpassed its $50,000 goal as of Tuesday afternoon.
While a higher-than-average number of shark encounters off the coast of New York this summer has garnered attention, the overall risk of being bitten by a shark remains low.
Global trends are now roughly stable, having increased slightly over the past 30 years, due in part to increased human recreational activity and the recovery of endangered shark populations.
According to the Florida Museum, there were 73 unprovoked attacks worldwide last year. Almost every attack is the result of a mistaken identity, as sharks do not intentionally target humans.
Most attacks in the United States occur off Florida’s Atlantic coast, home to choppy waters and baitfish on which several species of sharks feed.
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