Her brother Josh Stewart posted an update to the page today revealing a grim prognosis for the \u201cpassionate teacher\u201d and \u201cloving mum\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven the extensive open wounds contaminated with sand and debris, the risk of infection is extreme,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease pray for her during her continued surgery and for her body to heal without infection.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leah Stewart suffered severe and life-threatening injuries with multiple bites across her arms and legs.<\/p>\n
Josh said family had planned to pin up photos of happy memories around Stewart\u2019s room \u201cfor when she becomes conscious\u201d, and thanked friends who visited his sister with a playlist of her favourite songs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been blown away by the support, care, love and generosity we\u2019ve received for Leah,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour love, concern and help has made a world of difference to giving Leah and her little family some stability and hope for her recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stewart\u2019s mother Christine, who is a registered nurse, and her partner Fernando have remained at her side while she receives treatment in intensive care.<\/p>\n
Fernando was presenting at an overseas work conference when the attack happened.<\/p>\n
Stewart was reportedly swimming laps close to the shore and between the flags when the shark struck.<\/p>\n
Verco told the ABC he saw the shark drag Stewart underwater and the water quickly turned \u201cvery bloody\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was lucid enough to say, \u2018Help\u2019, and respond to instruction, but she was very much in shock,\u201d Verco said.<\/p>\n
Verco said he reassured Stewart as he paddled her to shore, telling her she was doing well and that help was close.<\/p>\n
Flight path restrictions meant shark surveillance drones were not operating over Coogee Beach when the attack happened.<\/p>\n
Sign up to Herald Premium Editor\u2019s Picks<\/a>, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week\u2019s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They later revealed one of her arms had to be amputated. A GoFundMe campaign initiated by the family…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478492,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[74,21644,15153,89,1135,239293,47753,2109,51175,2082,16773,42,12592,190837,2845,424,7975,6178,43,5493,10715,312,7971,6934,242803,40,38,41,39,67355,16550,102,104831],"class_list":["post-483521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-after","tag-amputation","tag-arm","tag-attack","tag-australian","tag-coogee","tag-extremely","tag-family","tag-fights","tag-for","tag-great","tag-headlines","tag-infection","tag-leah","tag-leaving","tag-life","tag-mauled","tag-mother","tag-news","tag-open","tag-remains","tag-says","tag-shark","tag-stewart","tag-susceptible","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-unconscious","tag-white","tag-with","tag-wounds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483521","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=483521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}