“I Had to Survive”: Mom Recalls Terrifying Great White Shark Attack

Leah Stewart cannot forget its face: a large great white shark that suddenly appeared in front of her.

Nearly two months have passed since that morning in June, when Stewart went for a swim at Coogee Beach in Sydney, near her home in Australia. It was part of her familiar morning routine, but she never imagined that within seconds, it would turn into a desperate fight for her life.

Now, still facing a long recovery from severe injuries and the amputation of one of her hands, Stewart is speaking for the first time about the terrifying moment she came face-to-face with a great white shark.

“Its face was horrifying,” she said in an interview with 60 Minutes Australia. “I will never forget its face. It was a monster.”

But at the moment Stewart realized just how serious the situation was, she was not thinking about herself. She was thinking about her young daughter.

“I remember the shark had hold of me, and I just knew I had to get out of this alive,” she recalled.

The Thought That Kept Her Fighting

Amid the fear and chaos, Stewart could think of little else but her daughter, August, who was only a year and a half old at the time.

The shark that attacked her was estimated to be about 11.5 feet long, and Stewart knew there was a real possibility she might not make it home that day. She thought about her daughter having to grow up without her. But instead of allowing that thought to overwhelm her, she says it became the force that pushed her to keep fighting.

“I realized I had to do everything I could to stay alive,” she said.

In that moment, her maternal instinct and survival instinct came together. She was not ready to give up.

Stewart suffered extremely serious injuries to her arms and legs and lost a significant amount of blood before Charlie Verco, a paddleboarding champion and off-duty lifeguard, came to her aid.

Verco later described a devastating scene. Despite the danger, he managed to reach Stewart and help bring her back to shore, where another battle began: the fight to save her life.

She was rushed to the hospital in critical condition and underwent a series of surgeries. Her injuries were so severe that doctors ultimately had to amputate one of her hands.

Waking Up to a New Reality

Stewart was kept in a coma for nearly two weeks. Then, she woke up.

It quickly became clear that not only could she communicate, but she also remembered what she had been through. Among the first words she said to her family were: “I love you.”

From there, an entirely new chapter of her life began.

Stewart, who had simply been a young mother heading out for her usual morning swim, suddenly had to adjust to a completely different reality: the loss of a hand, additional injuries, ongoing medical treatment, and a long road to recovery.

But in her first interview since the attack, Stewart did not speak only about what she had lost. She also spoke about what surviving had given her.

“I was given my life as a gift, I was given a second chance, and I want to live the life I was given anew, with care, love, and giving,” she concluded.