Sydney mother Leah Stewart has spoken publicly for the first time about the shark attack that left her fighting for her life at New South Wales’ Coogee Beach.<\/p>\n
The 34-year-old was swimming near the shore on June 13<\/a> when she was attacked by a four-metre great white shark, suffering catastrophic injuries that ultimately resulted in the amputation of her left arm.<\/p>\n Ms Stewart spent weeks in a critical condition in hospital and underwent almost a dozen surgeries, including a skin graft on her thigh.<\/p>\n Speaking with 60 Minutes, Ms Stewart revealed new details of the attack, including the moment she came face-to-face with the shark and the desperate fight that followed.<\/p>\n She said the thought of her young daughter August growing up without a mother was what drove her to fight for her life.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m the woman that fought like hell to be here, to be here for August, and it was the hardest thing in the world, but I fought my way out of there,\u201d Ms Stewart told Nine’s Tracy Grimshaw.<\/p>\n Ms Stewart said she had always been mindful of the risks when swimming in open water and did what she could to be safe.<\/p>\n \u201cI would never swim at sunrise or sunset, only on crystal clear days,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cStaying really close to shore, that\u2019s something I sort of tried to do.\u201d<\/p>\n On the day of the attack, she was swimming back to shore when she heard screams in the water.<\/p>\n \u201cI heard a girl behind me just scream, kind of like a shrill shriek, and I turned and there was a huge, huge fin behind her, it was massive,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI stopped and I could feel movement in the water, and I turned around and it was right there.\u201d<\/p>\n The animal moved towards her with its mouth open before stopping just centimetres from her face.<\/p>\n \u201cI will never forget its face,” Ms Stewart said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was huge and its teeth and its mouth was massive and its eyes, it\u2019s just black little beady eyes, we were just looking face to face.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a monster.\u201d<\/p>\n With the shark directly in front of her, Ms Stewart made the incredible decision to fight back.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen it was holding on to my leg I had the thought, \u2018this is it, this is how I die\u2019,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Her thoughts quickly turned to her daughter August, who was on the sand with family members.<\/p>\n \u201cThen I just thought of August and I thought, \u2018she\u2019s not going to have a mum,\u201d Ms Stewart said through tears.<\/p>\n \u201cI couldn\u2019t handle that.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m going to do everything I can to be here\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cYou ugly f***er, you\u2019re not taking me away from my daughter\u201d. \u00a0<\/p>\n Ms Stewart said she could feel the shark shaking her but twisted her body around and punched the animal’s snout as hard as she could. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI just started punching it over and over and over again, just punch, punch, punch,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was like fighting a dinosaur, it was so big.<\/p>\n “It was like punching a brick wall.”<\/p>\n The attack left Ms Stewart with devastating injuries to both arms and her left leg<\/a>.<\/p>\n She was pulled from the water by world champion paddleboarder Charlie Verco, before being treated on the beach by surf lifesaver Ben Heenan, frontline trauma specialist Dr Ian Ferguson.\u00a0<\/p>\n With Ms Stweart having lost a significant amount of blood, doctors struggled to establish conventional intravenous access.<\/p>\n Dr Ferguson used an emergency procedure to deliver fluids and blood directly to bone marrow in her shoulders.<\/p>\n She was then rushed to St Vincent\u2019s Hospital in a critical condition where a team of surgeons worked to save her life.<\/p>\n In hospital her condition was so extreme that she was categorised as “not being compatible with life”.<\/p>\n For ten days after the attack, Ms Stewart\u2019s family waited, not knowing if she would survive.<\/p>\n