{"id":497695,"date":"2026-06-17T18:07:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T18:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/497695\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T18:07:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T18:07:11","slug":"coogee-beach-shark-attack-update-leah-stewart-still-in-icu-after-surgeries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/497695\/","title":{"rendered":"Coogee Beach shark attack update: Leah Stewart still in ICU after surgeries"},"content":{"rendered":"

Family, prayers and a specially curated playlist are helping to keep a Sydney<\/a> teacher going as she fights for life days after a shark attack<\/a> on one of the city\u2019s busiest beaches<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Leah Stewart, 34, underwent \u201chighly complex\u201d surgery<\/a> today in St Vincent\u2019s Hospital Sydney, her brother said, just the latest in a string of operations since she was left fighting for life at Coogee Beach on Saturday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Shark attack victim Leah Stewart has undergone more surgery in St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney.\u00a0Stewart family\/GoFundMe<\/p>\n

Joshua Stewart shared an update on his sister\u2019s condition today, telling supporters she was still on life support in the intensive care unit following \u201cextensive surgery\u201d this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you so much everyone, as a family we\u2019ve been blown away by the support, care, love and generosity we\u2019ve received for Leah, August and the family,\u201d he said, in an online fundraising page that had raised almost $400,000 by this afternoon.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you so much to this beautiful community for your generosity in donating to support Leah, in sharing the GoFundMe<\/a>, your messages of support and those who have dropped in food, nappies, and supplies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you all!\u201d<\/p>\n

The recent mother was swimming<\/a> between the flags about 20 to 30 metres from the shore when she was bitten by a large great white shark<\/a>, leaving her with multiple bites on her arms and legs, cuts and fractures throughout her body and extreme blood loss.<\/p>\n

She was facing a long road to recovery and had lost an arm, her family said.<\/p>\n

Joshua said their mother, Christine, and Leah\u2019s partner, Fernando, who had been overseas presenting at a conference, had been by her side every day.<\/p>\n

But that wasn\u2019t all helping keep the mother going as she battled to get back to caring for her one-year-old.<\/p>\n

\"Leah<\/p>\n

Stewart is facing a long road to recovery and had lost an arm.\u00a0Facebook<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you to Leah\u2019s friends who curated a playlist of her favourite songs over the years to play by her bedside,\u201d Joshua said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re currently printing out photos to put into her hospital room to surround her with positive memories, for when she becomes conscious.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joshua said the doctors<\/a>, nurses, staff and surgeons at St Vincent\u2019s had been \u201camazing\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cLeah has been admitted for more highly complex surgery today involving multiple specialist teams from St Vincent\u2019s,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the extensive open wounds contaminated with sand and debris, the risk of infection is extreme.<\/p>\n

\"Leah<\/p>\n

\u201cLeah remains in a critical condition on life support and has undergone multiple surgeries in the days after the attack,\u201d her family said on a fundraising page.\u00a0GoFundMe<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease pray for her during her continued surgery and for her body to heal without infection.\u201d<\/p>\n

The update came as colleagues and students at Hurstville Adventist School, where Leah is deputy principal, prayed for her recovery<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Avondale University today joined the public well-wishes for its alumni.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a devastating time for Leah, her family, and all who know and love them,\u201d the university said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe pray for healing, peace, and courage for Leah and her family as they face the uncertainty of the days, weeks and months ahead.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this difficult time, we come together as a community, entrusting Leah and her family to God\u2019s loving care.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Family, prayers and a specially curated playlist are helping to keep a Sydney teacher going as she fights…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":497696,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[85,46,141,386],"class_list":["post-497695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}