DULUTH, Minn. - An 11-year-old girl has undergone surgery to repair damage to her foot which might have been caused by a fish in a northeastern Minnesota lake.
Maren Kesselhon suffered nine deep lacerations and tendon damage when she was injured while sitting on a paddleboard on Island Lake north of Duluth Wednesday.
Maren told KBJR she jumped in the water to cool down, then felt movement.
"I felt my whole foot in its mouth," she said. "I was screaming. I was so terrified."
Maren was taken to the emergency room where she was treated for 25 bites. She had to be sedated before receiving nine stitches and having a tendon repaired.
The Dickinson Press reports doctors at Essentia Health, where Maren had surgery, say the razor-sharp cuts, some down to the bone, probably were caused by a muskie, which inhabit Island Lake. Maren's dad Ryan said the cuts were so clean, they felt it had to be a big fish.
A Duluth fisherman caught and released a 47-inch long muskie Wednesday.
Ryan said he hopes to go back and find the fish that did this to his daughter and "hang it on my wall."
This is the second attack on Island Lake in recent years.
In 2012, an Anoka, Minn. woman was bit 25 times by an otter while training for a triathlon.
