13-Year-Old Shark Attack Survivor Gets 1,000 Stitches and Hopes to Swim Again: I Wanna Get Back Out There

Lots of us love the water, but were something truly terrifying to happen as we were swimming, we may rethink that love: Not so though for 13-year-old Keane Webre-Hayes who was bitten by a shark, had traumatic injuries, and says he can’t wait to go swimming again!

“[I] definitely wanna get back out there,” Webre-Hayes told a classroom full of students when he returned to school on Wednesday, according to Good Morning America. He told the class he hopes to get back to surfing, “really, really soon.”

The tenacious little boy was diving for lobsters just off the coast of Encinitas, a beach city in San Diego County, California, when a 10-foot shark attacked. As a result, Webre-Hayes had over five hours of surgery, and got 1,000 stitches to repair his torn upper back, shoulder, torso and face.

“When I was in the water, I was like, ‘This is probably a big fish,’” Webre-Hayes said. “Then my mind instantly went to shark.”

The boy got away by escaping to a nearby kayak. “Once we threw him up on the kayak and started heading in, that’s when I looked back, and the shark was behind the kayak,”  the kayak owner, Chad Hammel recalled to FOX 5. “He didn’t want to give up yet.”

While the boy is on the road to recovery, he still has a long way to go.  Still, he can’t wait to go lobster diving again! However, when that happens “he’ll be wrapped in bubble wrap,” his mother, Ellie Hayes, said to the students in his class.

We can’t blame her.

Keane is one tenacious kid — his fearless attitude and zest for life will get him far, and inspires us to pursue our own goals, despite how scary they may seem.