PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — A 14-year-old boy from West Virginia was bitten by a shark while swimming at a North Carolina beach.
Blaine Brown, of Cabell County, West Virginia, was bitten on the leg and ankle by a shark on Sunday at Topsail Beach Access No. 4 in Pender County, North Carolina, the Herald-Dispatch reported. The boy was reportedly swimming with a friend in waist-deep water around noon when the bite occurred. Brown was about 30 to 40 feet from shore, the paper reported.
Beachgoers helped treat the boy before emergency responders arrived and took him to Camp Lejeune Naval Medical Center, the newspaper reported.
“I didn't know what it was,” he told the Herald-Dispatch, “I just felt something very painful.”
He underwent surgery and a specialist was called in after the injuries were more serious than doctors initially thought, the paper said.
Brown returned to her home in West Virginia on Tuesday, but her mother said she may need another surgery.
The Associated Press reported that according to the International Shark Attack File, there were 69 accidental shark bites around the world last year, 10 of which were fatal, higher than the annual average of six fatalities in recent years.