A mom and teacher who lost her arm in an Australian shark attack recalled the moment she had to choose “which limb am I willing to lose” after coming face-to-face with the “monster.”
Leah Stewart, 34, was attacked around 100 feet from the shore off Sydney’s iconic Coogee Beach on June 13 by what was suspected to be a great white shark.
The Coogee local, an accomplished swimmer, described in haunting detail the moment she realized she had to make an agonizing decision to save her own life.
“It got to the point where it was about 30 centimeters from my face and it sort of started opening its mouth,” Stewart, a mom to 1-year-old August, told Australia’s 60 Minutes in an interview airing this Sunday, recalling the terrifying ordeal.
“I’m like, I’ve got to try and punch it. I’ve got to try and push it away or else it’s going to bite my head off.
“And in that moment I thought, well, which limb am I willing to lose? I’m right-handed. So I decided, let’s do a left hook.”
Stewart, who has a young daughter named August, had to have her left arm amputated — but she counted her blessings that she came out the other side alive.
She also vividly described the shark’s appearance as it prepared to rip into her flesh.
“Its face was horrific,” she said. “I’m never going to forget its face. It was a monster.”
Stewart was pulled from the water by an off-duty lifeguard and was rushed to the hospital having “sustained severe and life-threatening injuries with multiple bites across her arms and legs,” her brother Joshua said in a fundraiser he created to support her young family.
“I was holding onto my leg and I just thought of August. And I thought… she’s not going to have a mom,” Stewart said through tears.
In the immediate aftermath, the “passionate teacher” was put on life support. Thankfully, her condition gradually improved.
On June 23, Joshua shared a heartwarming update when his sister had been temporarily brought out of her induced coma.
“This allowed Leah to share her first words ‘I love you’ with her mum and partner Fernando,” he said, recalling how her family had been by her bedside in ICU.
“Her first thoughts were with her daughter August and wanted to check she was OK. This is a lot faster than anyone expected, and for us this feels like a miracle.”
Stewart has since closed her fundraiser after raising $558,925 AUD – around $400,000. She said she has been left “constantly overwhelmed” by the generosity of strangers.
“After what has been an incredibly difficult few months, I’m so happy that I’ve progressed enough to build some independence, and I can finally see some light after all of this,” she said in a post on Sunday.
“Once again, I don’t feel like I can say thank you enough. I want you to know that I feel like I’ve been given a second chance at life, and I’m not going to waste it.”
