SAN DIEGO (NEWS 8) – Keane Webre Hayes, the 13-year-old who was bitten by a shark last weekend in Encinitas, was released from the hospital on Thursday.
Carlos Delgado with Rady Children’s Hospital told News 8 that Hayes, “was no longer a patient at Rady Children’s Hospital.”
Last Saturday, Hayes was lobster diving when an eleven-foot shark attacked him.
Earlier this week, Physician Tim Fairbanks, chief of pediatric and trauma surgery at Children's Hospital, said Hayes "did well in the operating room" while undergoing surgery for a "very large injury." The wound stretched over the left side of Keane's body and head, from his upper back and torso to his arm and the side of his face, according to Fairbanks.
Keane's mother, Ellie Hayes, described her family as "blessed" in light of her son's good prognosis for a full recovery. She praised his positive attitude in the aftermath of the traumatic experience, calling him "very brave, very strong."
"He's a warrior," she said during hospital news conference.
Chris Lowe, a marine biologist and director of the Shark Lab at Cal State University Long Beach, is part of a team of experts investigating the shark attack at Beacon's Beach.
"By taking swabs from the wetsuit, [we can] identify DNA left from the shark, so new forensic techniques are being used,” said Lowe. “We can actually sample the water and measure white shark DNA in the water, so these are new methods that we're developing.”
Lowe says the most common species involved in attacks off California's coast are white sharks.
"Occasionally, tiger sharks and bull sharks can come up from warmer water from the south, typically they are very rare, but our waters have been unusually warm,” said Lowe.
Knowing the species, means learning more about their behavior to better advise the public.
Still, Lowe made one thing very clear: "Shark bites in California are extremely rare, in fact, per capita they're declining,” he said.
A GoFundMe.com donation page set up by the teen's family to help them with medical expenses had raised more than $25,000 as of early this afternoon.
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