Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SOUTH CAROLINA — A Utah family’s vacation took an unexpected turn when their 12-year-old son was bitten by a shark while playing in the ocean Tuesday.
Pleasant Grove resident Alene Weakley and her son Kysen Weakley took a trip to South Carolina to visit family. Weakley said she teaches fifth grade and wanted to see Fort Sumter and some of the other historical sites she teaches her students about.
Tuesday, the Weakleys took a trip to Charleston with their extended family and visited Isle of Palms Beach, a county park near Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.
“The kids of course wanted to go to the beach because we don’t see a lot of beaches in Utah,” Alene Weakley said laughing.
She said Kysen and his 7-year-old cousin had been playing in the ocean for about 45 minutes and were lying in the water about 10 feet from the shore when she heard her son yell.
“The tide was coming in … and they were just riding the waves as they came in,” Alene Weakley said. “And all of a sudden, he yelled to his cousin and said, ‘CK, get out of the water. I just got bit.’ When he said he got bit, I thought ‘Oh, he just maybe got stung by a jellyfish or bit by a fish or something minor.’ I couldn’t see a bite anywhere. Then he lifts up his swimming suit and I’m like, “Oh my gosh. Is that a shark bite?”
Kysen told his mother that after he was bit on the thigh, he turned around and saw the fin of a shark swimming away. Alene Weakley said they were close to a life guard station and they immediately got the bite bandaged to stop the bleeding. They declined an ambulance and she drove him to an Instacare where he received eight stitches.
When he said he got bit, I thought 'Oh, he just maybe got stung by a jellyfish or bit by a fish or something minor.' I couldn't see a bite anywhere. Then he lifts up his swimming suit and I'm like, 'Oh my gosh. Is that a shark bite?'
–Alene Weakley
The doctor took photos of the wound and forwarded them to a local aquarium to determine the size of the shark, but he guessed it was between 5-7 feet long based on the size of the bite mark, Alene Weakley said. She said they were told that it is common for sharks to ride the tide in close to shore to eat fish after 4 p.m.
However, despite the scary situation, Alene Weakley said it could have been much worse and they felt very blessed.
“We’re guessing (the shark) just bit down and realized that wasn’t what he wanted and released and let go,” she said. “We just feel very blessed, first of all, because it could have been so much worse, especially if he got my nephew who is 7 years old. … If that shark had gotten him, it probably would have been a limb gone.”
She said as a family they pray for protection every day, and she felt their prayers were answered during the shark attack.
“Somebody could look at that and say, ‘You were not protected. He got bit by a shark.’ But that’s not at all the case. He was so protected … (and) now my son has a cool shark attack story.”
Alene Weakley said Kysen’s new nickname is “Shark Bait.”
Others have suffered severe injuries in a rash of shark attacks along nearby beaches in North Carolina in 2015. On June 14, a 12-year-old girl swimming near Oak Island, North Carolina, lost part of her left arm from a shark bite and injured her leg. A 16-year-old boy who was just 2 miles away lost his entire left arm in a similar incident a little more than an hour later.
Contributing: Dave Cawley and Ben Lockhart
Alene Weakley
