'Don't know how she survived': String of events saves swimmer savaged by great white

Leah Stewart should have died.

The 35-year-old schoolteacher was finishing a morning swim at Sydney’s Coogee Beach when a 4m great white shark tore into her arm and leg and dragged her underwater.

Within minutes, she had lost a catastrophic amount of blood. Doctors would later describe her injuries as “not compatible with life”.

Stewart spoke with 60 Minutes Australia about the improbable series of events that saved her life, crediting a world champion paddleboarder, an off-duty lifesaver, a trauma doctor, police officers and hospital staff who each formed an extraordinary chain of rescuers.

“If one of them wasn’t there, I don’t think it would have worked,” she told 60 Minutes.

Stewart was metres from shore when a scream came from behind her. Turning around, she saw a huge fin cutting through the water near another swimmer.

“We just start screaming at the top of our lungs, just like shark, shark, shark.”

Stewart expected help to arrive, but she was alone with the animal.

“A minute went by and it was still there and no one had come to save me,” she said. “I’m like, surely this can’t happen, like this isn’t real,” she told the Australian television channel.

The shark that attacked Leah Stewart was captured on drone footage that day. Photo / 60 Minutes Australia

Then the shark turned towards her, until it was 30cm away.

“Its face was horrific. I’ll never forget its face.”

As its jaws opened, Stewart tried to punch it.

“I’ve got to try and push it away or else it’s going to bite my head off.”

Then, she told 60 Minutes, the shark bit down on her arm.

“It just grabs onto my forearm and rips, rips away my skin, my muscle, everything.

“And I can see my hand with the skin there, and then there’s a big gap between my forearm and the hand.”

About 20m away, four-time paddleboarding world champion Charlie Verco had been training when he heard the screams.

“The shark dragged her under,” he told 60 Minutes.

When Stewart resurfaced, Verco paddled towards her despite the blood spreading through the water and the shark remaining nearby.

“I was terrified. It was a pretty full-on situation.”

Leah Stewart was attacked by a great white shark on a morning swim. Photo / Leah Stewart

Stewart was too badly injured to climb onto his board. Verco began towing her towards shore, at one point paddling with one arm while using the other to hold her head above water.

Another rescuer was heading towards them.

Ben Heenan, president of Coogee Surf Life Saving Club, was off duty and had finished swimming with his partner, Dr Cassandra McGregor. He grabbed a rescue board and helped Verco bring Stewart ashore.

“I just don’t know how you survive such a severe attack like that,” Heenan told 60 Minutes.

If Verco saved her from the shark, then Dr Ian Ferguson, a highly experienced trauma specialist, helped save her from death.

Trauma specialist Dr Ian Ferguson and nearby police officers used tourniquets and emergency bone access to slow her blood loss and administer fluids and blood. Photo / 60 Minutes Australia

Ferguson had taken his children for coffee and a milkshake before a dance class. Seeing the commotion, he rushed to Stewart.

“She was very close to bleeding to death on the beach,” he said.

Nearby riot squad officers walking past came to help, carrying tourniquets – straps that go around limbs in life-threatening emergencies to control massive haemorrhage on an arm or leg.

Within moments of being pulled from the water, tourniquets were applied to Stewart.

However, Ferguson told 60 Minutes that Stewart had lost so much blood that her veins had collapsed.

On the beach, Ferguson used a drill to burrow into Stewart’s shoulders so fluids and later blood could be given directly into her bone marrow.

She was rushed to St Vincent’s Hospital where surgeons, anaesthetists, emergency physicians and vascular specialists were waiting to try to keep her from death.

Leah Stewart was swimming metres from shore at Sydney’s Coogee Beach when a 4m great white shark attacked, tearing into her arm and leg. Photo / 60 Minutes Australia

General surgeon Dr Kim Isaacs feared Stewart would not survive.

“I did think that she was going to die. It doesn’t mean I’m not going to try.”

Stewart underwent 11 operations, including the amputation of her left arm. Her right hand and arm also suffered serious nerve and tendon damage.

Now learning to walk and use her hand again, Stewart remains grateful to the strangers whose decisions saved her life.

“They’ve all played such an important piece in getting me to here now,” Stewart told 60 Minutes.

“I’ve had a second chance and all I can say is I’m not going to waste that second chance.”