An 8-year-old boy was airlifted to a hospital with “severe” injuries after he was attacked by a shark while spearfishing off the Florida Keys, officials said.
The shark bit the unidentified child above the knee while he was fishing with his father and another sibling four miles off Key Largo at Horseshoe Reef around 3:30 p.m. Monday , according to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office.
The boy’s dad immediately alerted a scuba diving boat in the area operated by Horizon Divers, whose crew applied two tourniquets to the wound to stop the bleeding and helped guide the family back to Garden Cove Marina.
The boy suffered a “significant amount of blood loss,” according to MCSO emergency dispatch audio broadcast over Broadcastify police scanner, WSVN reported.
“Patient is pale,” the dispatcher added.
Once back at the marina, he was airlifted to Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, police said.
The boy’s condition was described as “severe,” according to WSVN.
He underwent surgery on Monday night, Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay told the Miami Herald. Additional details about the boy’s condition have not been released.
The U.S. Coast Guard and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission were both notified about the attack, the sheriff’s office said.
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