Alene Weakley was an intern with us one year.
Our team that year was me, Condita, Paul, and Alene.
We had a great team!
This is an article about her 12 year old boy, Kysen.
'You can see the jaw marks': Pleasant Grove boy survives South Carolina shark attack
Kysen Weakley of Pleasant Grove is treated after being bitten by a shark while his family was vacationing in Isle of Palms, South Carolina.
Alene Weakley
SALT LAKE CITY — A Pleasant Grove family is filled with gratitude their 12-year-old boy survived a shark bite in South Carolina this week with nothing to show for it other than a few stitches and a gripping story for his friends.
Kysen Weakley was relaxing in the waves only about 10 to 15 feet from the shore Tuesday evening when he felt a pain in his leg and saw a shark fin making its way deeper into the ocean, the boy's mother said.
But the shark left Kysen and his 7-year-old cousin alone after briefly clamping down on his leg.
"We're guessing he just bit down and realized that wasn't what he wanted and released and let go," said Alene Weakley, who had taken her family for a swim in Isle of Palms, South Carolina. "We just feel very blessed … because it could have been so much worse."
Kysen had been swimming as much as 40 feet from shore earlier that day, his mother said, but he was letting himself float in water only about knee-deep when he was bitten.
Weakley said at first she thought her son had been bitten by a small fish.
"He pulls up his swimming suit, and there's just teeth marks in the thigh of his leg," she said. "I was trying to process: 'Is that a shark bite?' That was the first thing that came into my mind, but I was like, 'How can that be a shark bite?'"
Kysen stayed calm as lifeguards, shocked at the good condition they saw him in, bandaged his leg.
"(I told him), 'Kysen, just look at me. You're OK. You're OK,'" Weakley recalls. "He never went into shock or anything like that."
Kysen's bleeding was soon stopped and the family declined an ambulance, later taking him to a clinic for eight stitches. Medical staff there were in disbelief, as were Kysen's 16-year-old sister and friends back in Utah who at first had a hard time believing his tale.
"Sure enough, you can see the jaw marks," Weakley said.
Others have suffered severe injuries in a rash of shark attacks along nearby beaches in North Carolina in 2015. On June 14, a 12-year-old girl swimming near Oak Island, North Carolina, lost part of her left arm from a shark bite and injured her leg. A 16-year-old boy who was just 2 miles away lost his entire left arm in a similar incident a little more than an hour later.
Weakley also said she is grateful those marks are the only physical reminder of Kysen's close encounter with the shark.
"We start every day with a prayer … of protection," Weakley said. "He was so protected, and my little nephew, the fact he was only 3 feet away from my son, if that's not protection, I don't know what it is. … I very much feel like these are prayers answered."
Kysen was in good enough condition that the Weakleys were able to continue their South Carolina vacation, where they have been visiting historical sites. Still, Weakley said, it has been strange for the family to pause and realize the attack actually happened.
"I've kind of had to decompress," she said.
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