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‘You are not taking me away from my daughter’: Leah Stewart recalls fighting off shark
🇦🇺 Australia /Disasters & Emergencies

‘You are not taking me away from my daughter’: Leah Stewart recalls fighting off shark

From ABC Australia · () English

Translated from English and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

In-depth Named sources Outcome reported
  • Leah Stewart said she punched a four-metre great white shark repeatedly after it pulled her underwater at Coogee Beach in Sydney in June.
  • The attack caused severe blood loss and led to the amputation of her left arm, while an off-duty lifeguard helped bring her to shore.
  • The interview was released as New South Wales introduced expanded shark detection and drone surveillance measures.

Leah Stewart remembers making a split-second calculation as a four-metre great white shark closed in: she would sacrifice her left arm because she needed her right hand to fight back.

I’m right-handed, so I decided, ‘Let’s do a left hook’.

— Leah StewartShe described deciding which arm to risk as the shark attacked.

“I’m right-handed, so I decided, ‘Let’s do a left hook’,” Stewart told Nine’s 60 Minutes program. The 35-year-old Coogee teacher said the shark dragged her underwater and came within 30 centimetres of her face.

In what she described as survival mode, Stewart said she punched the shark repeatedly. “You ugly f***er, you are not taking me away from my daughter,” she recalled thinking. She compared the animal to a dinosaur and said it felt like punching a brick wall. She believed one punch finally made it release her.

You ugly f***er, you are not taking me away from my daughter.

— Leah StewartShe recalled the thought that drove her to fight while the shark pulled her underwater.

Stewart suffered bites to her arms and legs, extreme blood loss and injuries that required several operations, including the amputation of her left arm. After she reached the surface, off-duty volunteer lifeguard Charlie Verco helped her cling to the bottle holder on his paddleboard. Lifeguards and an off-duty doctor performed CPR on shore while they waited for an ambulance. Riot squad officers, who had increased patrols after the Bondi terror attack, used tourniquets to slow the bleeding.

I feel like I’ve been given a second chance at life, and I’m not going to waste it.

— Leah StewartShe wrote this in an update during her recovery.

Stewart spent more than a week in a medically induced coma at St Vincent’s Hospital. More than $550,000 was donated to support her and her family. In an update, she wrote, “I feel like I’ve been given a second chance at life, and I’m not going to waste it.” Her interview coincided with the rollout of new shark measures, including two detection buoys in Sydney Harbour and expanded drone surveillance at more than 90 beaches.

The water got very bloody and she got taken under and after a few seconds, popped up again, and the shark had let her go.

— Charlie VercoThe off-duty lifeguard described seeing the attack.
About this summary

Originally published by ABC Australia in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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