August 2022, the unimaginable happened to Jameson Reeder Jr. Then 10 years old, Jameson Jr. was snorkeling in the Looe Key Sanctuary Preservation Area in the Florida Keys with his GoPro, trying to capture footage of a turtle, when he was suddenly attacked by a 9-foot bull shark. Jameson Jr. soon found himself in the fight for his life. “Once it started shaking me, it yanked my head back,” he told a local outlet. Jameson’s father, Jameson Reeder Sr., was snorkeling with his son at the time of the attack and had just surfaced to tell his other son, Nehemiah, about the turtle when he heard Jameson screaming. “Once we get Jameson on to the boat, that’s when we see the unbelievable damage and know he has just been viciously attacked by a massive shark,” he recalled to Fox News Digital. “And we have not seen the shark. It snuck up – it was hunting essentially – and came out of nowhere.”

Jameson Sr. was soon faced with the very real possibility that his son might be dying. “Jameson’s leg below the knee was essentially gone. All that was there was the tibia bone, the main bone, and it had sharp teeth marks all over it. The fibula, the outer, smaller bone, was gone. All the flesh, all the muscle, everything, and then just attached at the bottom of the tibia bone was his foot. Below the knee to the foot, nothing.” Jameson Jr. would ultimately have a portion of his leg amputated. Now 13, he uses a prosthetic and has had six surgeries, with more planned as he grows. The Reeder family, however, has leaned on their faith during the entire ordeal.

The family has published a book about their experience, entitled Rescue at the Reef: The Miraculous True Story of a Little Boy with Big Faith. While promoting the book on Good Morning America, Jameson Jr. spoke about what it was like getting back in the water after the attack. “I was a little scared before I jumped in,” he admitted. “I wanted to go in and for a split two seconds, it was like a whole flashback of the whole shark attack just because of the environment of the whole reef. But I knew I had the Lord and so, I popped up and I just had a lot of fun.” Jameson Jr. has even returned to baseball. “I was a pitcher before the shark attack and I’m trying to get back to it. I’ve had some tough times and pain through some baseball games. But with how good prosthetics are getting, I actually have no more pain now playing baseball,” he said. Jameson Jr.’s mother, Mary, spoke of her son’s resilience. “He blows our mind every day. It’s been almost three years. He gets up every day and puts that leg on like nothing,” she said.