14-year-old Florida shark bite victim eager to return to the water

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — One Florida teen is not letting a recent run-in with a shark scare him away from the ocean, NBC affiliate WESH reports .

“The risk of it happening is so low,” Dempsey Manhart, a 14-year-old shark bite victim, told WESH. “And then on top of that, happening again is, like, almost nonexistent.”

The 14-year-old from Flagler County needed 17 stitches after being bitten Monday morning during a junior lifeguard training camp in Ponce Inlet.

“I dove on top of the shark, and then, oh, I guess spun around and bit me,” Manhart said. “…then it was, like, stuck in my leg. So I punched it.”

Manhart is one of three bite victims in Volusia County in the past few days, WESH reports.

Connor Baker, 21, from Ohio, was knee-deep in water while on vacation last Thursday when he ended up in the hospital.

“We were kind of throwing a football, the next thing you know, I kind of feel like my foot’s being stabbed on both sides,” Baker told WESH.

Baker is now unable to walk for six to eight weeks while the tendons in his foot heal. Unlike Manhart, who grew up near the water, Baker is not so eager to return to the beach.

“Maybe get my feet wet,” he said. “That’s about it. But not knowing what’s around me now, and after doing that, what happened to me, how shallow I was, I’m, like, not going to feel safe in like two-foot deep water if I can’t see it.”

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