Shark attacks child, leaves severe leg injury

An 10-year-old boy is recovering after being severely bitten at least twice on the leg by a shark in waist-deep waters off of Cocoa Beach in Florida.

The boy was visiting Lori Wilson Park – one of the area's top beach destinations - in Cocoa Beach with his family and a group of other people when he waded into the waters.

At 10:50 a.m., a Brevard County Ocean Beach lifeguard spotted the boy thrashing in the water.

"He was in waist deep waters near his mother and our lifeguards saw him in distress," Eisen Witcher, assistant chief of Ocean Rescue, told FLORIDA TODAY.

"There was blood in the water," he said. A lifeguard immediately went into the water and pulled the youth back to shore. The boy had large, bloodied laceration on his lower right calf.

"It's severe. We wrapped it up as fast as we could," Wicther said, adding that lifeguards immediately waved people out of the ocean for an hour as a precaution.

The boy, with his leg wrapped in a thick packing of bandages, was carried by an Ocean Rescue lifeguard, then placed in a waiting ambulance and taken to Cape Canaveral Hospital.

Because of the severity of the bite, he was airlifted to Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children and Women in Orlando for further treatment. Several witnesses at the beach said the child may have been bitten at least twice by small bull sharks seen in the water.

Bull sharks, which can be aggressive, are one of several species of shark known to swim along the warm waters of Brevard County's 72-mile-long coast line.

It was also believed to be the third shark bite to have occurred in the county since Memorial Day, the beginning of the summer season and a time when thousands of area families, visiting tourists and others crowd the beaches for sun bathing and a chance to get in the ocean. Earlier this month, a 13-year-old suffered a non-life threatening bite along the left ankle area at Cocoa Beach.

"This is shark territory," said Stephanie Yelenosky of Orlando. Yelenosky was one of the witnesses who was at Lori Wilson Park beach Sunday. She watched as lifeguards treated the 11-year-old boy.

Witcher said there have been more visitors to the beach this year.

"We're seeing more people, more tourists and they're coming to Cocoa Beach," he said. "And it's definitely been a more active year for shark activity," he said.

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