Leah Stewart shares recovery update after Coogee shark attack

Shark attack survivor Leah Stewart has shared updates on her physical and mental recovery after being attacked by a great white shark at Coogee Beach in Sydney's east on June 13.

Physical recovery

Ms Stewart, a 35-year-old teacher and mother from Coogee, was finishing up her swim at Coogee Beach when she was mauled by a 4-metre-long great white shark. The attack left her with multiple injuries and required more than a dozen operations, including the amputation of her left arm. She was bitten across her arms and legs and suffered extreme blood loss, and was placed in a medically induced coma for more than a week at St Vincent's Hospital.

In an online update, Ms Stewart said the shark took a "chunk" of her leg and that doctors were unable to save her quad muscle and outer hamstring. Doctors used a surgical implement, DermaClose, to help gradually close the wound. Despite not passing a skin graft, her bite was finally able to scar.

"I am really proud of my own body and the amazing team at St Vincent's and I survived the great white, so I've got a cool scar to show for it," she said in the update.

Ms Stewart said recovering from her leg wound had "been a journey". She said she can now use her legs and does not have to wrap it up every time she has a shower or be worried about infection because it is closed. "So thank you for following along. I am just so happy this is the best update for me," she said.

Mental recovery

Ms Stewart also shared a video message to her followers about her mental recovery. She said that when she used to recall the event she would have an eight-out-of-ten fear response and would feel like she was back in the water, with the shark attack replaying in her head on a loop, 24 hours a day, for months on end.

She said she had started EMDR - Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprogramming. "Basically, my therapist has something that moves and I follow it with my eyes as I recall the event," she said. The therapy has helped her move the horrific memory from the trauma part of her brain to the long-term memory side.

"I can recall it, but my body doesn't feel like it felt when I was in the water and it has been life changing for me," she said. "I feel like I'm finally getting my life back and I can go and have a conversation with my friend."

Ms Stewart said she was finally able to sleep properly and the nightmares of the open-mouthed shark had stopped. She said she is free to play with her daughter without the vivid memories flooding back in her mind. "I don't always have the image of a shark approaching me with its mouth open," she said.

The attack

Ms Stewart previously described the great white being only "30 centimetres" from her face. "In my head, I was like, 'You ugly f***er, you are not taking me away from my daughter,'" she said. "And I twisted myself around and I just started punching it over and over and over again. Just punch, punch, punch. It was like fighting a dinosaur. It was so big. It was like punching a brick wall."

She also shared a video of her rescue on the day of the attack, showing lifesavers dragging her to shore. Ms Stewart has been frank about her recovery journey since the attack, sharing in September that a skin graft on her leg had failed. She previously opened up about the traumatising incident in a candid interview with 60 Minutes, where she described the shark as a "monster" and recalled punching the animal in its snout as hard as she could.

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Sources

• abc.net.au: Shark attack survivor Leah Stewart celebrates leg wound scar as 'best update for me' - ABC News
• news24.com.au: 'Nightmares have stopped': Coogee shark attack victim Leah Stewart reveals major update on mental recovery | News24

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