00:00A young mother who was mauled by a great white shark while swimming between the flags at Coogee
00:05Beach on June 13, 2026, has had her arm amputated. 35-year-old Leah Stewart remains in life-threatening
00:14condition in hospital, while her family have set up a GoFundMe page to assist with her health care.
00:20The young mother was swimming not far from the shore when the shark struck.
00:25The Coogee regular had placed her baby in the arms of a friend while she went into the water for
00:30a quick swim.
00:32Off-duty surf lifesaver Charlie Verko witnessed the scene as it unfolded and helped to return the injured woman to
00:39the shore.
00:40I just got her to grab the nose of my board and started paddling backwards.
00:43I wasn't on a rescue board, I was on a board designed for open ocean paddling.
00:47It's really long and not very agile and not designed to have another person on it with me.
00:53So also because we were so close to the shore, I thought it just made sense to just start dragging
00:56her in was the fastest way to get her to the beach.
00:58She was two weeks to hold on to the nose of the board.
01:00I ended up paddling back up to her and getting her to hang on to the drink bottle cage.
01:04At this point, she was in quite a bit of shock, but she was still able to say help and
01:08respond to instructions.
01:10And I just started doing two arms, like back paddling, trying to get back to the shore.
01:14And that worked for most of the way in, but she ended up losing consciousness and letting go of the
01:19board.
01:19So I had to paddle up to her again and grab her by the arm and just hold her out
01:22of the water and just keep her head out of the water so she could breathe and just paddle back
01:28with one arm for the last little bit just to try and get her to shore as quickly as I
01:30could.
01:31In the wake of the shark sighting, drum lines and jet ski patrols have been deployed, while a temporary lift
01:37on air traffic control restrictions across the eastern beaches allowed for drone surveillance.
01:43If everybody had known that this was a risk, everyone would have acted sooner. I'm devastated that that's the case.
01:50We're looking very closely at investing significantly at AI-enabled drones.
Comments