Dillon Armijo: Colorado boy, 10, vows to return to the ocean after shark attack
CANCUN, MEXICO: Dillon Armijo, a 10-year-old boy from Colorado, plans to keep swimming in the ocean despite being attacked by a shark while on vacation in Cancun in March. Dillon was playing in the surf with his brother when the shark reportedly suddenly 'latched on' to his leg.
His mother heard him scream and saw him being pulled out of the water by his brother and a nearby lifeguard. Dillon spent four days in a Mexico hospital before being flown back to Colorado for surgery.
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'It just felt like a bump, like a really sharp bump'
Although he suffered serious tendon and nerve damage, Dillon is expected to make a full recovery. "It just felt like a bump, like a really sharp bump," Dillon recalled of the attack. "I didn't think I was going to live," he told Good Morning America. His mother said that the moment was the most overwhelming thing she had ever experienced. "That was a horrible, horrible feeling," she said.
Dillon's father said that all the tendons on both sides of his knee ''were gone'', and there was a lot of nerve damage in his foot. He will have drop foot, but he will be able to run and jump and play soccer like normal, in time. Dillon still has a long road of physical therapy ahead of him, but he has done a great job with the situation so far, according to his mother.
'I think I will go back into the ocean again'
Despite the ordeal, Dillon plans to keep swimming in the ocean once he makes a full recovery. "I think I will go back into the ocean again eventually," he told the station. A GoFundMe set up by friends of the family to help with medical bills has raised nearly $18,219 of its $20,000 goal. "It's nice to know that there are so many people here to help us out," Dillon's mother said.
'We were very, very lucky'
The family believes that getting Dillon home to local hospitals may have saved his life. "We were very, very lucky that we were able to get a medevac back to the United States and get him here to do the last three surgeries," Dillon's mother told Denver7. "I think that was what has given him such a great outcome is being back here at home with some fantastic doctors", she added.