Leah Lendel and her family were enjoying a typical day on the Florida Gulf Coast: walking around near a lighthouse, getting ice cream, then going to the beach to wade in the water, snorkeling, getting some pizza.
But as the 9-year-old was snorkeling with her siblings and her dad, she felt something pull, hard, on her arm. She started screaming, first in pain, then in horror.
“My hand was all in blood,” she said as she recounted being attacked by a shark June 11. “I started screaming for my mom.”
At a news conference June 19, Leah and her parents talked about what happened and the care she received on the scene in Boca Grande, Florida, and at Tampa General Hospital, where she was flown to receive emergency care. Doctors discussed how they saved the girl’s hand with the help of bystanders, first responders and Leah herself.
Leah Lendel is recovering from a shark bite at Tampa General Hospital. The 9-year-old nearly lost her hand in the June 11 attack but doctors were able to save it.
9-year-old shark victim nearly lost her hand
Leah was swimming in the ocean off of Boca Grande, Florida, with other family members around noon local time on June 11 when she was bit, Boca Grande Fire Chief C.W. Blosser said in a social media video.
People from a nearby construction site came running to help, calling 911 and applying a tourniquet that likely saved Leah’s life, and certainly her hand.
She was flown to Tampa General, and the decision to take her there meant there was a trauma team ready to stabilize her, restore blood flow and save her hand, doctors said.
Tampa General, the only Level I adult and pediatric trauma center, was uniquely equipped to handle the complexity of saving Leah’s hand, said doctors at the news conference.
Leah Lendel, flanked by her parents Nadia and Jay, talked about being attacked by a shark. Her parents credited doctors, EMS personnel and Good Samaritans with helping save Leah’s hand.
Shark bites are ‘like a bunch of razor blades’
Dr. Alfred Hess, an orthopedic surgeon, said Leah’s case had “a great outcome.”
“A shark injury is both a blessing and a curse in this case,” he said. “The teeth are so sharp that the cut through the wrist is clean and not jagged, so it doesn’t ruin all the tissue and we have clean tissue to work with.”
Hess said he’s seen all kinds of animal-inflicted wounds in his 35 years of practice, including alligators, lions and sharks. Sharks’ mouths, he said, “are like a bunch of razor blades; they go through tissue.” Treating the wounds, he added, “is all about if you have something left to put back on.”
Shark attacks, though terrifying, are rare: According to Trackingsharks.com, there have been just four shark attacks in the U.S. so far this year, none of them fatal. In fact, the odds of being killed by a shark in the U.S. are more than 4 million to 1.
Quick response by bystanders, EMS
Leah’s parents, Nadia and Jay, said they were grateful not only for the medical professionals at Tampa General, but also to the people on the scene who helped the family during the horrific ordeal.
And, Nadia said, a woman who lives nearby helped her with her two toddlers, calming her and giving her water as Jay flew with Leah to the hospital.
All of the adults talked about Leah’s role, as well: her resilience, her calm, her ability to handle surgery and rehabilitation.
Sporting a big foam “cheese pillow” as one doctor described it (meant to keep her arm elevated, explained Dr. Joshua Linnell, orthopedic surgeon at Tampa General Hospital and Florida Orthopedic Institute), Leah continues to recover with the help of her family, a therapy dog named Belle and a team of medical professionals who’ll help her regain full use of her hand.
Asked how she’s been able to handle everything so well, Leah was modest, or maybe just as honest as 9-year-olds usually are: “I don’t know,” she replied shyly.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: ‘My hand was all in blood’: 9-year-old recounts shark bite ordeal
