A 7-year-old boy is recovering from surgery Friday after he was bitten by something swimming in the waters of Fort Lauderdale Beach.
Grey Sosa's son, JJ, has three deep wounds above his right hand.
"He saw a big brown fish and he thought it was the hair of my niece, and he reached out and he got bit," Sosa said.
Doctors at Broward Health Medical Center told Sosa that the bite came from a shark. But Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue officials say that according to the lifeguard on duty, it wasn’t.
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"During the lifeguards' brief assessment it was believed that the wound was created by a barracuda, or other fanged fish, due to the wound pattern presentation. The family was offered Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue's assistance, but declined and opted to seek further assessment at a local hospital on their own," fire rescue officials said in a statement.
Sosa says she’s putting JJ's story out there as a warning to others.
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"If something like that is swimming in the water, whether a barracuda, a shark, whatever is going to attack humans like that, it’s not safe," she said. "I don’t want nobody to go through this. That’s why I’m here."
Although JJ is doing better, doctors say it may take a while for him to move his thumb as normal.
