A dedicated mom and teacher who lost her arm in a vicious shark attack during an early morning swim woke up from a medically induced coma long enough to tell her family, “I love you,” before being sedated again.
Leah Stewart, 35, delivered the brief but heartfelt message over a week after she was brutally injured by a great white shark off the coast of Sydney, Australia’s iconic Coogee Beach, her brother, Joshua Stewart, wrote in an update on Tuesday.
“Some really wonderful news for Leah today. After a week of life support and repeat surgeries, doctors were able to extubate Leah and reduce her level of sedation to bring her out of the induced coma for a short period of time,” Joshua said in a statement on her GoFundMe.
“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.”
Stewart’s “first thoughts” were about her baby daughter, August, who was on the beach as the mother was attacked roughly 100 feet from the shore.
“This is a lot faster than anyone expected, and for us this feels like a miracle and is everything so many of us have hoped and prayed for over the past week,” her brother added.
Stewart, whose arm was amputated, remains in the ICU and will continue to need a high level of medical care for “some time,” her family said.
She sustained severe and life-threatening injuries, including multiple bites across her arms and legs, lacerations, fractures, and extreme blood loss.
She was pulled out of the water by an off-duty lifeguard, and a critical care doctor who happened to be on the beach worked with first responders to help stabilize her.
The mom will continue to have multiple surgeries in the coming weeks, but her loved ones are optimistic that her first words are a “positive step” in her long-term recovery.
Stewart is an accomplished swimmer who swam over 30 miles to raise money for breast cancer research and, in 2024, competed in the Coogee Island Challenge, an annual 1.5-mile race.
A GoFundMe seeking donations for her recovery has raised over $505,028 of its AU$550,000 goal.
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