The mother who fought off a 4-meter shark with her fists, lost an arm - and survived: "It was like fighting a dinosaur"
Lea Stewart, who was critically injured by a great white shark at a beach in Sydney, recounts for the first time how she fought it off. She told the Australian "60 Minutes" that she thought of her baby daughter at the time: "In my head it was like - 'You ugly f***er, you're not taking me away from her!'". Her left arm, which she sacrificed in advance to save herself, was amputated, and she is now undergoing rehabilitation: "I'm not the girl who was attacked. I'm the woman who punched a shark in the face".
In Australia, the amazing testimony of Lea Stewart, 34, a mother who was attacked by a giant shark and critically injured – but managed to fend it off with punches – was published. Stewart said that while she was hitting the snout of the shark, a great white shark reportedly four meters long, again and again, she thought of her baby daughter August, who was on the beach.
"In my head it was like 'You ugly f***er, you're not taking me away from my daughter!'", she said in an interview with the Australian version of the TV show "60 Minutes" on Channel Nine. Stewart, a teacher from Sydney, was attacked on June 13 at Coogee Beach, a famous touristy beach where she swam every day, always staying in marked areas near the shore. According to reports, this was the first shark attack on this specific beach in over 100 years.
During the struggle, Stewart was severely injured in her left arm, which was later amputated, as well as in her other arm and one of her legs. She lost a lot of blood and her condition was critical; she was saved thanks to medical personnel who happened to be on the beach and provided advanced primary care. She spent over a week in a coma and is now undergoing rehabilitation that has already allowed her to return to walking.
In the interview, Stewart said she was attacked after finishing her morning swim and heading back to the shore where her family was. Hearing someone scream, she turned and noticed a giant fin. "It was huge, I realized it wasn't a dolphin". She initially tried to swim back, but then felt movement in the water, and the shark was right there. She described the shark's face as "terrifying", with a huge mouth and "small black eyes like beads". At one point, it was about 30 centimeters from her face.
The attack occurred about 30 meters from the shore. When the shark grabbed her thigh and pulled her under, Lea had to make a split-second decision: "Something in me went into survival mode. I thought about August: 'She won't have a mom'. I couldn't deal with that thought. I had to fight". She turned and started hitting the snout: "It was like fighting a dinosaur, it was so big. It was like punching a wall". She got the idea to hit the snout from watching an interview with surfer Mick Fanning, who survived a similar attack in 2015.
Before attacking, Lea consciously decided which hand to sacrifice: "I thought, 'I have to try to punch it, otherwise it will take my head off. Which limb am I willing to sacrifice? I'm right-handed. Let's try a punch with the left hand'". After the shark released her, other bathers pulled her to shore. Dr. Ian Ferguson, a trauma expert on the scene, explained that because she had lost so much blood, he had to drill into the bone marrow in her shoulders to inject fluids and blood flown in by helicopter.
Lea is now learning to write again with her right hand, which was injured but not amputated. She insists she doesn't want to be remembered as "the girl who was attacked", but as "the woman who punched a shark in the face". "I fought with all my might to be here for August. It was the hardest thing in the world, but I fought my way out of there".
