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'LOST MY PINKIE'
Terrifying images show horror injuries after six-foot shark tore off a fisherman’s FINGER in vicious attack
A MAN is back in the water after being bitten by a shark during a family fishing trip.
Brett Reeder severely injured his pinkie while attempting to release a lemon shark he accidentally reeled in on July 17.
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He could be seen in a now-deleted TikTok leaning over the edge of a boat in a scuffle with the sea creature in shallow water.
“It was hooked in the gills and I was trying to get the hook out when the shark took a shark turn,” said Reeder.
“Crazy thing is we do it all the time,” he added. “It's pretty normal to be able to get the hooks out of them and I just got a little unlucky.”
He explained that the sharks are “pretty easy” to get a hold of.
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“You can grab the back of their heads, pick them up and let them go safely.”
The shark suddenly chomped on Reeder’s left pinkie as his family watched in shock.
“I lost my g*****n pinkie!” he shouted in the video.
Moments later, the six-foot shark swam away as Reeder immediately sought medical attention.
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“We immediately pulled anchor and Mandy cut the line as Courtnee and Bekah applied a tourniquet to my arm under the elbow,” Reeder said.
He was airlifted to Jackson South Hospital in Florida and doctors were able to re-attach his pinkie with more than 100 stitches, a pin and a cast.
“They’ve got me in a hard cast on the bottom because all four tendons were cut on top,” he said.
“They wanted my hand to be propped up like this for about six weeks for the tendon to heal perfectly.”
Reeder’s wife, , continues to post TikToks of her husband fishing, but now he sports a bandage on his left hand and wields a knife in his other.
“I learned my lesson,” Reeder said
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While he came out lucky in his still terrifying interaction with the sea creature, Reeder hopes others will see it as a warning.
“This would be more a message of education,” he said. “Just be super careful, even someone who unhooks this all the time. It can happen pretty quick so just be careful.”
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