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Boy, 9, survives shark mauling waist deep water Miami Beach, left with 20 stitches

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Jay Weiskopf Minnesota 9 year old boy survives Miami Beach shark attack
Jay Weiskopf Minnesota 9 year old boy survives Miami Beach shark attack
Jay Weiskopf Minnesota boy, 9, shark attack Miami Beach
Jay Weiskopf Minnesota 9 year old boy survives Miami Beach shark attack

Jay Weiskopf Minnesota 9 year old boy survives Miami Beach shark attack that left him needing 20 stitches along his shoulder. Had gone to Florida with parents for family holiday.

A nine-year-old boy is lucky to be alive after surviving a shark attack in waist deep waters at Miami Beach, having received 20 stitches to close a gaping wound on his shoulder.

Jay Weiskopf, from Minnesota, was on vacation in  Florida with his parents, Kristine and Ren Weiskopf, when he was mauled in waist deep water, moments after having entered the ocean on Sunday.

‘I want to prevent this from happening to another person,’ Kristine told the dailymail on Monday. ‘We were in 2 feet of water. It’s just nuts. I never, ever expected this could happen in waist-high water.’  

Kristine said she and her son were only in the water for a few minutes before she noticed something was wrong. 

‘I was holding his hand the whole time and he was kind of body surfing a little bit and he had fallen on his stomach,‘ Kristine told Local 10news.

‘When I pulled him up, I noticed there was just a big chunk of skin missing from his shoulder.

‘He just said “ow” and I looked down and there was about a 4-foot grey shark just kinda swimming away, so I just scooped him up and ran him up the beach,’ Kristine said.

Miami Beach Fire Rescue met the family on the sand and took the 9 year old boy to Jackson Memorial Hospital.

He was rushed to surgery to treat the large wound and is now said to be traumatized but doing ‘okay,’ according to his mother’s Facebook post.  

Doctors have warned of the possibilities of infection and potential long-term effects of the injury on Jay’s mobility.

However, because he is so young, Jay is likely to recover well, though he may need to have a skin graft in the future.

‘He just wants to go home and it’s really sad because we had so much fun planned,’ Kristine said. 

Jay Weiskopf Minnesota boy, 9, shark attack Miami Beach
Jay Weiskopf Minnesota boy, 9, shark attack Miami Beach. Image via social media.

‘Traumatized but okay…’

‘I just love him so much. He’s such a great kid and we’re still in shock, but thankful. We thank God that he didn’t take his life. That he’s gonna be OK,’ Jay’s father, Ren, told WPLG. 

‘We thank God that [the shark] didn’t take his life, that [Jay’s] gonna be OK.’

Added the father, ‘What I don’t like right now is that the beach is still open, and kids are still down there playing, and they are in the same spot where my son just got attacked. I don’t know if it’s just because of spring break or whatever, but the beach should be closed.’ 

In a recent Facebook post, Kristine also said: ‘I know taking a vacation is a risk, but I had no idea this was the risk we were taking…he’s okay. Traumatized but okay and we thank God for that.’

The mom added that her son ‘just wants to go home.’

‘And it’s really sad because we had so much fun planned,’ Kristine Weiskopf said.

The US reported 33 unprovoked shark attacks last year, according to the early World Shark Attack Summary released by The University of Florida’s International Shark Attack File (ISAF) in January.

Sixteen of those attacks took place in Florida. 

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