It was a sunny August Saturday when Mary and Jameson Reeder took a boat nine miles out into Looe Key Reef with their four children, for a day of swimming and snorkeling in the crystal clear waters of the Florida Keys. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe kids were diving, splashing, just having the best time,\u201d writes Jameson in \u201cRescue at the Reef: The Miraculous True Story of a Little Boy with Big Faith\u201d (Worthy).<\/p>\n
As Jameson swam with his youngest son, Nehemiah, his oldest boy, 10-year-old Jameson Jr. grabbed a GoPro video camera and dived down to the seabed to see what he could find. <\/p>\n
Jameson Reeder Jr. was 10-years-old when he was attacked by a shark on a snorkeling trip with his family. ABC News<\/p>\n
\u201cThen I heard the screaming,\u201d Jameson recalls.<\/p>\n
On the boat, Mary Reeder thought her\u00a0son had been stung by a jellyfish. But when she and her husband dragged him back on the boat, she was shocked by her son\u2019s leg.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw some of his ragged skin and then just bone \u2013\u00a0way too much bone \u2013 and it seemed to keep going and going until his bloody foot rose past me,\u201d she writes.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis lower leg was all bone. Just below the knee, all the way to the ankle. And then the foot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instantly, the couple knew it was a shark attack.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing else could do that damage,\u201d she adds. \u201cIt was a horrific, almost unreal sight.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the family was still nine miles off-shore, and the nearest hospital was another 20 miles away.<\/p>\n
As Mary writes, a \u201cterrifying realization was still settling into my chest.\u00a0I\u2019m going to lose my son!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
His parents, Mary Catherine and Jameson Reeder, tell the harrowing story in a new book.<\/p>\n
They weren\u2019t totally alone, though. Other boats soon came to their assistance including one with a nurse onboard who swam to the Reeders with a first aid kit, despite the fact that the shark was likely still nearby and there was blood in the water.<\/p>\n
Racing back to the shore, Mary feared the worst. \u201cHe had lost so much blood, more than I\u2019d ever seen,\u201d she remembers. \u201cI was trying to keep him awake, to get him to keep his eyes open, praying that he wouldn\u2019t die.\u201d<\/p>\n
When they reached the marina, an ambulance was waiting to transport Jameson to a nearby church \u2014 where a helicopter would airlift him to Nicklaus Children\u2019s Hospital in Miami, a thirty-minute flight away.<\/p>\n
There, as doctors examined his injuries, the extent of the damage was clear. As the Reeders explain, the surgeons couldn\u2019t save Jameson\u2019s leg, because there was nothing left to save. <\/p>\n
Through footage obtained with Jameson Jr.\u2019s GoPro camera, they were able to ascertain that it was a bull shark \u2014 eight to 10 feet long, weighing between 300 and 500 pounds. ABC News<\/p>\n
\u201cI had been worried that my son might lose his life. Then I\u2019d been worried that Jameson would lose his leg, but in this moment I realized he had already lost it,\u201d adds Mary.<\/p>\n
While she and her husband deliberated over giving permission to amputate their son\u2019s leg, a doctor intervened. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t have to make this decision,\u201d he told them. \u201cThe shark made it for you. You\u2019re off the hook.\u201d<\/p>\n
The family learned that it almost certainly had been a bull shark \u2014 eight to 10 feet long, weighing between 300 and 500 pounds. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe hadn\u2019t seen it,\u201d adds Mary. \u201cA quarter\u2010ton animal twice as long as our kid had snuck up on us.\u201d<\/p>\n
The boy had to be airlifted from the marina to Nicklaus Children\u2019s Hospital in Miami. Jameson Reeder Jr \/ Instagram<\/p>\n
In a wild twist, their suspicions were confirmed when the boy\u2019s GoPro video camera was recovered \u2014 and the Reeders could see exactly what had happened.<\/p>\n
First there was a shadow. Then a tail and a fin.<\/p>\n
A cloud of blood filled the screen before a shark\u2019s tooth appeared and then drifted out of view. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t an exaggeration to say he had fought a Goliath and won,\u201d says Jameson Sr.<\/p>\n
Statistically, write the Reeders, you have a greater chance of being struck by lightning on five separate occasions than you do of ever being attacked by a shark.<\/p>\n
Doctors said there was no way to save the boy\u2019s leg. Jameson Reeder Jr \/ Instagram<\/p>\n
What\u2019s more, there had never been a single recorded shark attack at Looe Key Reef in recorded history.<\/p>\n
Jameson had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time.<\/p>\n
When the boy awoke after 10-hour surgery he said he couldn\u2019t feel his toes. A doctor asked what he remembered of the incident and why he thought he couldn\u2019t feel them.<\/p>\n
Then the realization kicked in. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe didn\u2019t say anything,\u201d writes Mary. \u201cHe was processing the question, trying to find his way from it to an impossible and horrible answer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shortly after the attack, Jameson Jr. was intent on going back to the reef where it happened. ABC News<\/p>\n
Jameson required three more surgeries as physicians attempted to graft new skin to what was left of the bottom of his leg.<\/p>\n
But he shocked his family by saying he wanted to go back to the reef, just four days after the attack.<\/p>\n
\u201cDad,\u201d Jameson said, \u201cI don\u2019t want the shark, this hospital, and my leg to be my worst nightmare. I want to face my fear and move forward.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The attack also had profoundly different effects on his three siblings.<\/p>\n
Brother Noah, 8, for example, wanted to stick close to Jameson to make sure he was all right.<\/p>\n
Jameson Jr. got a prosthetic leg three months after the attack. Jameson Reeder Jr \/ Instagram<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want the shark, this hospital, and my leg to be my worst nightmare. I want to face my fear and move forward,\u201d the tween said. Credit: Reeder family<\/p>\n
Six-year-old sister Eliana, meanwhile, didn\u2019t even want to talk about what happened. \u201cWhenever we tell the story to someone, Eliana goes into another room or covers her ears or puts on headphones,\u201d writes Mary.<\/p>\n
Youngest brother Nehemiah, 3, thinks his brother is a superhero. \u201cHe brags about it to people,\u201d says Jameson Sr. \u201cHe just thinks it\u2019s so cool: \u2018My brother got bit by a bull shark.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The family, meanwhile, attributed their son\u2019s miraculous survival to their faith. \u201cI felt so certain that God was leading every snap decision,\u201d writes Jameson Sr.\u00a0\u201cEvery moment felt like we had been guided into doing the best thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jameson told his parents that in the aftermath of the attack, while he was drifting in and out of consciousness on the boat back to shore, he had seen a \u201cperson on fire\u201d standing on the boat. <\/p>\n
\u201cI knew it was Jesus,\u201d he told them, adding: \u201cIt was the worst and best day of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
The family attributes their son\u2019s miraculous survival to their faith. Jameson Reeder Jr \/ Instagram<\/p>\n
Three months after the attack, Jameson \u2014\u00a0who still swims and skateboards and plays basketball with friends \u2014 received his first prosthetic leg. Before the year was over, he went surfing.<\/p>\n
On the one-year anniversary of the incident, the Reeder family returned to Looe Key Reef to swim in the same waters. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe did see some sharks when we got in the water. That definitely made it more frightening, more intense,\u201d recalls Jameson Sr.\u00a0 \u201cBut Jameson still jumped in.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was a sunny August Saturday when Mary and Jameson Reeder took a boat nine miles out into…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":96983,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[1022,32681,159,2415,67,132,68,1154,837],"class_list":{"0":"post-96982","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-postscript","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-sharks","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-us-news","16":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114925822864477929","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}