A 10-year-old lost a part of his leg after he was attacked by a shark while on vacation in the Florida Keys.
Jameson Reeder Jr is grateful that his life was spared in a “very traumatic” attack by what is believed to be a 8ft bull shark, his uncle said in a post on Facebook, adding that that child “took a crushing blow below his knee”.
Jameson had to be airlifted to a Miami hospital, where his leg was amputated from just below the knee to save his life as that part of the leg was not operable from the damage the shark had caused, the uncle said.
“They said the shark made the decision for him and wasn’t anything they could do to save it. But his life was spared,” Joshua Reeder added.
The incident took place at around 4pm near Looe Key Reef on Saturday where the boy was on vacation with his father Jameson Reeder Sr and mother Mary Reeder along with his sister Eliana and brothers Noah and Nehemiah.
“As he screamed and cried for help while miraculously staying afloat on a noodle, my brother Jameson gathered his family on the boat and rushed over to rescue his son. They saw Jameson Jr holding on for dear life and jumped in to get him on the boat,” Mr Reeder said.
He added that the parents tightly tied the part of his leg above the bite to stop the bleeding even as the scared boy kept repeating “Jesus will save me”.
“The helicopter lifted off less than an hour from the time of the incident and had Jameson Jr and his mom,” Mr Reeder said.
The boy is now out of surgery, recovering, and is “strong and in good spirits”, his uncle added.
The family has organised a fundraiser to raise money for the financial expenses of Jameson’s surgery and treatment. The GiveSendGo page to help the family has raised $46,136 (£38,300) so far.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission confirmed the incident but did not release any details, the Miami Herald reported. The state agency said they would release details after getting in touch with Jameson’s father.
Though marine experts say shark attacks are rare in Florida, there have been more than five attacks this year.
Florida’s waters are home to a variety of sharks, including bull sharks, lemon sharks, giant hammerhead and tiger sharks.
On 29 June, a Texas-based woman Lindsay Bruns, 35, was attacked by a shark when she was swimming in the water and her husband suddenly saw “nothing but blood in the water”. She had a large laceration on her leg and received a blood transfusion.
