FULL STORY: Wickersham recovers after shark attack, surgery

Longboat Key native Charles “C.J.” Wickersham has been an avid fisherman since he was 4.

“It’s his passion,” his mother, Ella Wickersham, said of her 21-year-old son.

But nothing could prepare Ella Wickersham for the phone call she got Saturday. Her friend, Jeannie Bystrom, called her and told her first that C.J. was OK.

“But,” Bystrom said, “he’s been bitten by a shark.”

Wickersham was spearfishing with friends, including Bystrom’s son, Connor, when an 11-foot bull shark bit him on his left thigh Saturday, Sept. 24, near Rod & Reel Pier off of Anna Maria. His friends immediately got him back on their boat and called 911. Wickersham sustained a 15-inch wound and was transported to Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg via Bayflite helicopter.

Wickersham had surgery Monday afternoon to debride his wound, according to his sister, Kristi Wickersham.

On Tuesday afternoon, Ella Wickersham said her son was in a lot of pain, having received approximately 800 sutures. But she said that the surgery was successful.

“It went awesome,” she said. “They were able to save that whole muscle so he doesn’t have to have skin grafts. Now, we’re just praying the infection stays away.”

Wickersham said the attack is still sinking in for her son.

“I think he realizes how lucky he is,” she said.

Wickersham, a 2008 graduate of Manatee High School, will likely remain in the hospital for approximately 10 days.

But will he return to the water anytime soon?

“Not if we can help it,” his mother said.