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Published 16:30 24 Jun 2026 GMT
A mother who suffered life-threatening injuries in a shark attack off the coast of Australia has spoken for the first time since being brought out of a medically induced coma.
Leah Stewart, a 34-year-old teacher and mom, was attacked while swimming near Sydney’s Coogee Beach on June 13. After more than a week in intensive care, multiple surgeries, and days on life support, her family has shared a hopeful update on her condition.
The breakthrough came on June 23 when doctors were able to extubate Stewart and reduce her sedation levels for the first time since the attack. According to her brother, Joshua Stewart, the move allowed her to briefly wake and interact with loved ones gathered at her bedside.
In an update posted to a GoFundMe page, Joshua described the emotional moment.
“This allowed Leah to share her first words ‘I love you’ with her Mum and partner Fernando who have been by her side in ICU since the incident,” Joshua wrote. "Leah’s first thought was of her 1-year-old daughter, August, and she immediately asked if she was okay."
He added: “This is a lot faster than anyone expected,” he continued, “and for us this feels like a miracle and is everything so many of us have hoped and prayed for over the past week.”
The update marks a significant step forward for Stewart, who remains in critical care following the devastating attack.
According to information previously shared by her family, Stewart sustained severe injuries during the attack, including multiple bites to her arms and legs. One of her arms was amputated, and she also suffered “lacerations and fractures throughout her body, and extreme blood loss.”
A friend was caring for Stewart’s toddler on the beach when the attack occurred. Her partner, Fernando, was overseas for work at the time, according to the family’s fundraiser.
Following the incident, Joshua wrote: “As a family, we are shocked and devastated that this could happen to our beloved partner, daughter, and mother who is so full of life and energy.”
While Stewart remains in the ICU and faces additional surgeries in the weeks ahead, support for her recovery has poured in from both her local community and strangers around the world.
As of June 24, the family’s GoFundMe campaign had raised nearly AUD $498,000 (approximately USD $343,500) to help cover her ongoing care and recovery.
Joshua said the recent interaction with his sister has given the family renewed optimism.
“Leah has a long road ahead and still remains in critical care,” he wrote, “but this is such a positive first step and gives us hope for Leah’s long-term recovery.”
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Published 10:59 11 Jun 2024 GMT
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Published 12:46 03 Jul 2022 GMT
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A teenage girl has sustained serious injuries after being attacked by a shark at a beach in Florida.
Per CBS News, Addison Bethea, 17, was looking for scallops close to the water around five feet deep off Keaton Beach when a shark attacked her, according to the Taylor County Sheriff’s Office.
Coming to the girl’s aid, Bethea's brother bravely fought off the shark, by poking it in the eyes in defense. Tragically, the shark ended up biting her right leg twice before swimming away.
Bethea was airlifted to a hospital in Tallahassee with serious injuries and is now awake in the ICU of a Tallahassee hospital after almost losing her life to the 9-foot beast. The hospital shared a post on Facebook detailing the attack.
The hospital posted a picture of the teen and her brother, with the caption: "Addison has devastating damage to the soft tissue in her right leg. The TMH trauma team stabilized her, and the trauma surgeon performed emergency surgery with a goal of restoring blood flow to her leg."
"She will undergo a second surgery Saturday, July 2 to further investigate the extent of the damage to her leg and determine what treatment options are available with the goal of saving her leg," they continued.
The hospital wrote that Bethea has a "long journey to recovery" and that family would like to thank their community in Taylor County for reaching out to offer prayers and support during this difficult time.
Bethea's parents also posted about the painful news on their Facebook, with her mom writing: "Right now we just ask for continued prayers for our sweet girl. She’s a tough cookie and she has a long road ahead of her but she’s alive and that’s all this mama cares about. So please keep praying because it’s working!"
Sheriff Padgett announced in a statement that the news is a "tragedy" stating that, "Boaters and swimmers are cautioned to be alert, vigilant, and practice shark safety,"
"Some rules to follow are: never swim alone, do not enter the water near fishermen, avoid areas such as sandbars (where sharks like to congregate), do not swim near large schools of fish, and avoid erratic movements while in the water," the sheriff said.
Florida has reported on average 25 shark attack incidents each year over the last half-decade. The International Shark Attack File shows that the number of attacks seems to be decreasing.
Our thoughts continue to go out to Bethea and her family.
Published 09:44 30 Jun 2025 GMT
What began as a sunny beach outing between twin sisters and their mother quickly turned into a life-altering nightmare.
In June 2023, 15-year-old twins Ellie and Lulu Gribbin, along with their mother, Ann Blair Gribbin, and a group of friends, were vacationing at Rosemary Beach in Walton County, Florida.
It was meant to be a relaxing day in the sun, but it didn't turn out that way.
After breakfast, the group made their way to the shoreline around 10:30am, eager to enjoy the clear waters and soft sand.
The sisters waded out to a sandbar, searching for sand dollars, flattened sea urchins often found in the shallow Gulf waters.
But their morning quickly turned to terror.
As they began swimming back to shore, Ellie and Lulu spotted a shark in the water.
“We just started swimming for our lives,” Ellie later told ABC News.
She reached land first, then turned around. What she saw froze her in place.
“The entire ocean was red,” she recalled. “Waves were bringing in blood. And then I realized… Lulu was gone.”
Lulu had been attacked. In a split second, the shark tore into her hand and leg. Ellie, panicked but determined, tried to rush back into the water to help her twin, only to see a man already pulling Lulu to shore, CBS News reported.
What Ellie witnessed next was a living nightmare for any loved one.
“Her hand was completely gone. There was just a stump, flesh and muscle. Her leg was mangled, too. I could see the bone," she recalled.
Despite her own fear, Ellie stayed by Lulu’s side, holding her eyelids open to keep her conscious.
“She was trying to scream, but the pain was so overwhelming, all she could do was make this quiet, awful sound,” Ellie said.
Lulu was quickly airlifted to a hospital in Pensacola, where surgeons worked to save her life. She ultimately lost her left hand and most of her right leg, but she survived, per WIAT.
Over the following months, Lulu underwent numerous surgeries and rehabilitation.
Just three months after the attack, she walked out of the hospital using a prosthetic leg and arm - a powerful demonstration of her resilience and unwavering spirit.
Now, a year after the incident, Lulu is using her experience to help others. She founded the Lulu Strong Foundation, which supports innovation and assistance for amputees facing similar challenges.
“Despite these severe injuries, Lulu has shown incredible strength,” the foundation’s website reads.
“She’s taken her trauma and transformed it into a mission, fueled by grit, compassion, and the desire to make a difference.”
Published 23:22 03 Jun 2019 GMT
After surviving a "horrific shark attack" at a North Carolina beach on Sunday, a 17-year-old girl lost a leg and some fingers, officials say. Vidant Medical Center identified the victim as Paige Winter of New Born, and reported that she is "in good condition and receiving excellent care."
Eyewitness Lacy Whorton, told NBC News that "everybody started screaming" when the attack happened, and lifeguards quickly pulled Winter from the water. Paige's father, Charlie, heroically joined the rescue effort, according to her grandmother, Janet Winter. "Thank God our son was with her he said he punched the shark in the face 5 times before it let go," she wrote on Facebook.
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The incident occurred at Atlantic Beach, a town on a barrier island about 44 miles east of Jacksonville. Whorton said she visits the beach regularly and "has never seen anything like this." Police responded to the incident at around noon and discovered Winter had "deep lacerations to her leg, pelvic, and hand areas," according to a spokesperson for the Atlantic Beach Fire Department.
Paige was airlifted to Vidant Medical in Greenville to receive treatment. Her family created GoFundMe page to raise money for "surgeries, physical therapy, prosthetics, recovery process, and Charlie’s missed days from work." In the description, they state that "due to the severity of the attack, amputation of [Paige's] left leg above the knee was inevitable." The campaign has raised $8,613 of a $5,000 goal, as of this writing.
The family confirmed that Paige lost some fingers and her left leg was amputated from above the knee. But despite the brutal, life-changing attack, she is in good spirits and still retains love for all marine life. "Per Marcy Winter (Paige’s Mom) Paige is out of surgery and awake, she’s still pretty groggy but cracking jokes,” reads a GoFundMe page update. "She wants everyone to know that Sharks are still good people."
"Her family expresses their appreciation for the first responders, the individuals on the beach who helped and her heroic father who saved her life," the family said in an official statement, per ABC News. "Despite this unfortunate circumstance, Paige is an unwavering advocate for the marine life and the animals who live in the water. She wishes for people to continue to respect sharks in their environment and their safety."
Published 15:09 19 Jul 2018 GMT
Two children have been injured in shark attacks off the coast of Long Island, New York, in what is the first of such incidents in the state for 70 years.
Authorities report that a 12-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy were treated for puncture wounds to their legs in separate incidents, taking place miles apart, along the bay of Fire Island on Wednesday.
The two individuals were discharged after undergoing emergency medical treatment to their right legs. Both are expected to fully recover.
A tooth, which was described as being "consistent with a large fish" was extracted from the boy's leg, and was after analysed to determine the species that he encountered while boogie-boarding at Atlantique Beach, in the town of Islip, 50 miles east of Manhattan.
The girl, who was later identified as Lola Pollina, said that she was standing waist-deep in cold waters at Sailors Heaven beach in Brookhaven - two miles east of Islip - when she was bitten. Pollina described seeing a fin before returning to the beach to discover that her "leg was bloody".
"I saw something, like, next to me, and I kind of felt pain, and looked and I saw a fin," she stated. "We went to the lifeguards, we ran up to them and they kind of bandaged it."
Pollina added that the shadow in the water appeared to be around three to four feet long (90-120 cm).
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At a press conference following the two incidents, chief lifeguard, Craig Amarando, stated: "So the boy was very brave. He was alert the whole time. He was scared of course, but he was a brave boy."
The puncture wounds were reportedly bandaged immediately, but paramedics arrived and removed the dressings to view the incisions. "They confirmed that not only was it a shark bite, but they found one of the teeth still inside the boy," Amarando continued.
According to the chief of Ocean Beach Fire Department, Ian Levine - whose paramedics treated the boy - shark attacks are incredibly rare in waters off Fire Island or anywhere else in the state.
Only 10 cases of shark bites on people have been documented in New York state, and the last was in 1948, said Levine, after citing documents he was given by Islip town supervisors.
National parks spokeswoman, Elizabeth Rogers, has announced that Fire Island beaches have been closed until further notice.
According to Rogers, the tooth specimen is currently being studied by the state's environment department, which is due to report its findings to the Suffolk county marine bureau.
In a separate incident, a tiger shark, which measured seven feet long (2.2 metres), was captured by a fisherman at Kismet, another beach town, two miles west of Islip. Levine has since said that he doubts that either of Wednesday's attacks involved that particular shark.
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