9-Year-Old Minnesota Boy Bitten By Shark On Miami Beach, Hospitalized

KEY POINTS

The boy and his mother were body surfing when the attack happened
His mother found a chunk of skin missing from his shoulder
Doctors performed a surgery at the hospital to close the wound

A 9-year-old Minnesota boy was bitten by a shark while vacationing on a beach in Miami with his family.

Kristine Weiskopf told Local 10 news she and her son, Jay, were only 10 minutes into body surfing in the water when the boy was attacked by the shark.

“I was holding his hand the whole time and he was kind of body surfing a little bit and he had fallen on his stomach,” Weiskopf told the outlet.

Weiskopf found a bulk of skin was missing from Jay’s shoulder upon pulling him up from the water.

"He just said 'ow' and I looked down and there was about a 4-foot gray shark just kinda swimming away, so I just scooped him up and ran him up the beach," Weiskopf told Local 10 news.

Miami Beach Fire Rescue met the family close by and transported the child to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where surgery was performed to close his large wound.

"I just love him so much. He’s such a great kid and we’re still in shock, but thankful. We thank God that he didn’t take his life. That he’s gonna be OK," the boy’s father, Ren, told the outlet.

Jay might have to undergo skin grafting surgery to mend the scar resulting from the injury, according to Florida News-Times.

Florida ranked the highest in shark attacks in light of visitors having frequent encounters with the predators along the Miami coastline, Miami Living reported. Surfers in the sea are at high risk of getting attacked by sharks who prowl for whales, seals and sea lions. The sea predators don’t typically like human flesh and tend to let go of a human prey without further harming them, but that doesn’t undermine the fear whatsoever.

In August 2019, an 11-year-old Canadian boy was bitten by a shark while he was on a vacation in Florida. The boy was swimming in "about knee-deep water on his way out of the ocean" when he was confronted by the fish. The boy, identified as Christian Mariani, suffered “very minor injuries" in the attack. Mariani was left with a puncture wound on his foot due to the attack.