Leah Stewart was enjoying a morning swim when a shark grabbed her leg. After losing an arm and spending months in a coma, she is finally waking up to a new life, fueled by the thought of the little girl waiting for her at home.
You go for a quiet morning swim at the beach. You expect the cold water and the sound of the waves. You do not expect to look down and see a monster staring back at you.
That is the nightmare Leah Stewart lived through in June. The 34-year-old mother was swimming at Coogee Beach in Sydney when a shark grabbed her. It tore into her arms and legs. She was put into an induced coma and eventually had to have one of her arms amputated.
Now, after months of brutal surgeries, she is finally speaking out.
“I feel like I’ve been given a second chance at life, and I’m not going to waste it,” Stewart wrote to her supporters. She said the last few months have been “incredibly difficult,” but the love from strangers helped her “get better, not bitter.”
The public rallied behind her, raising over AU$550,000. That money is now allowing her to recover at home.
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In a TV interview, Stewart described the terrifying moment the attack happened. She looked right at the shark.
“I’ll never forget its face; it was a monster,” she said.
As it held onto her leg, her mind went straight to her daughter, August.
“I just thought, ‘she’s not going to have a mum. She’s gonna grow up without a mum,'” Stewart recalled. “I couldn’t handle that… I just thought, I’ve got to fight it, do everything I can to be here.”
Australia has seen a rough year in the water, with several fatal attacks, including a 12-year-old boy. The ocean is wild and unforgiving.
But for Leah Stewart, the water did not win. She lost an arm, but she kept her life. Now, she gets to go home and hug her little girl.
