MONROE COUNTY, Fla. — A Florida teen will have an interesting story to tell his peers once the new school year starts this month after being bit in the lip by a shark.
Thirteen-year-old Fischer Hricko from Oviedo says his family was on vacation in the Florida Keys out looking for lobsters last week when it happened. He says he was attacked by a nurse shark — a species usually known to be docile.
"On my way up, I felt a little nudge on the back of my leg," Fischer explained. "I turned around thinking it was someone or something."
But instead, the teen turned around and was suddenly face to face with a shark.
"I tried to swim as fast as I could back to the boat, and I just started screaming," he said.
Fischer's dad, Ken, saw the outcome of the shark bite firsthand.
"I just dropped the rope and started swimming back to him as quickly as I could when I'm approaching him, I'm just seeing blood gushing out of his face," Ken recalled. "At that point, I'm like, 'Oh my gosh, what happened?'"
CBS News explains Fischer's mom was screaming about a shark, but Ken just assumed there was one nearby — never one attacking his son. But once he saw Fischer rushing to swim back to the boat, he jumped into action.
It was a team effort by the family to get Fischer back on the boat and to shore. They then drove him to an urgent care clinic where he got stitches on his upper lip.
But even after getting bit by a shark, the 13-year-old says the experience isn't scaring him away from the ocean. The very next day he was out on the water fishing.
While fishing the next day, believe or not, he actually hooked a shark.
Fischer's upper lip is still healing, so it will be a while before he can actually get back into the water to swim. But boy, does he have a story to tell now!