BOCA GRANDE, Fla. (WFLA) — Body camera video shows the tense moments right after a 9-year-old was attacked by a shark in Boca Grande.
The young girl, Leah Lendel, was snorkeling just a few feet from her mother, who said she then suddenly jumped out of the water.
“I could see her hand hanging, and there’s blood everywhere,” Nadia Lendel told a sheriff’s deputy moments after the attack.
Leah was flown to a hospital in Tampa, where she underwent a six-hour surgery to try and repair her hand and fingers.
Nadia shared an update on her daughter’s condition on Friday.
“[This] morning Leah was able to move ALL her fingers,” she wrote on Instagram. “This is truly a miracle.”
When construction workers nearby heard the noise, they hurried over and managed to wrap a towel around Leah’s wound until first responders arrived at the location.
One of the men, Raynel Lugo, said that while they weren’t able to tell what kind of shark it was, it was big, around eight feet long.
