bitten while swimming between the flags<\/a> at Coogee Beach just before 11am on Saturday.<\/p>\nThe 35-year-old was taken to St Vincent’s Hospital in critical condition.<\/p>\n
Her family has released a statement saying she sustained “life-threatening” injuries.<\/p>\n
“She remains in a critical condition and has undergone multiple surgeries in the days after the attack,” the family said in a statement.<\/p>\n
“She will need extensive ongoing care, support and rehabilitation.<\/p>\n
“As a family we are shocked and devastated that this could happen to our beloved partner, daughter, and mother who is so full of life and energy.”<\/p>\n
Her family said Stewart was a Coogee local, a passionate teacher and a loving mother.<\/p>\n
As a result of her injuries, the family are raising funds to help with her recovery and allow her to care for her daughter.<\/p>\n
“We share our sincere thanks and gratitude to the lifesavers, first responders, helicopter crew and the dedicated medical team of doctors, nurses, and support staff at St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney who have been caring for Leah,” the family said.<\/p>\n
“Our thanks to all who have reached out to the family with sympathy, care and prayer.”<\/p>\n
Stewart suffered severe wounds to her left lower leg and arms after being attacked about 30 metres off shore by what is believed to be a white shark.<\/p>\n
She was spotted by an off-duty lifeguard, who was paddleboard training for a competition, when her friend “started screaming shark”.<\/p>\n
He then used a signal to indicate to lifeguards to clear the beach and prepare for triage before towing her to shore.<\/p>\n
“She was lucid enough to say, ‘Help’, and respond to instruction, but she was very much in shock and definitely freaked out and wasn’t able to have conversation,” Charlie Verco said on Sunday.<\/p>\n
He said she lost consciousness about halfway to shore, requiring him to keep her head above water.<\/p>\n
– ABC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Miriah Davis, ABC News Leah Stewart’s family say her injuries are “severe and life-threatening”. Photo: Supplied \/…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478405,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-478404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Leah](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/4JMZDBF_05a238c7bd63256e26a2ecfa79f36a21_avif.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n