Jennifer Radd, the mother of 13-year-old surfer Logan Radd, told Florida Today that the boy told her he was “going to be OK” despite later needing 19 stitches for the bite.
Logan Radd was bitten twice by a shark in the ocean off Satellite Beach, Florida on Tuesday afternoon while with his family. After making his way to shore following the two bites to his foot, he was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.
Speaking to Florida Today, Jennifer Radd said: “He just told me, ‘Mommy, don’t cry… He was so brave, just telling me he was going to be OK. The bites looked pretty gnarly and got him 19 stitches.”
She later told the local news outlet that the experience was “the worst thing a mother could go through”. Her son Logan added that he would be surfing again once his stitches were taken out.
Logan Radd is not the only Florida resident to be bitten by a shark this week. It was reported earlier this week that a shark bit a man in the Huguenot Park waters off Jacksonville.
The man was attacked while swimming on Tuesday at 5 p.m. local time. He sustained a non left-threatening injury to one forearm bitten by the shark and was expected to fully recover, according to News4Jax.
Florida is also home to Volusia County, an area known as the “shark-bite capital of the world”. Three people were bitten in waters off New Smyrna Beach in Volusia County within the space of just two days in August.
Two more people were bitten near the beach later that same month, including a 9-year-old girl who was attacked in knee-deep water.
A survey of confirmed unprovoked shark attacks stretching from 1580 to June this year found that 1,441 were recorded in the U.S. over the period. This put it far above second-place Australia, which recorded 642 unprovoked shark attacks.
But data from the University of Florida shows that the average person is more likely to be killed by fireworks than a shark attack. In advice on how to avoid being attacked by a shark, the International Shark Attack File advises swimmers not to stray too far from shore, wear shiny jewellery, avoid night time swimming and going into the water when bleeding.
