TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — The family of the 9-year-old girl who survived an alleged shark attack provided an update on their daughter’s healing progress at Tampa General Hospital (TGH).
Leah Lendel and her family shared details about her emotional recovery journey alongside the hospital’s medical team on Thursday. Doctors discussed the efforts they made to save Lendel’s hand.
“Everyone involved in her care did an outstanding job,” said Leah’s mother. “Based on what I saw, I didn’t believe she would keep her hand. It looked incredibly serious.”
Leah was snorkeling in the water off a Boca Grande beach with her family on June 11 when the apparent shark attack happened.
“I didn’t see anything. I was just snorkeling and then I went up to breathe, and then something hard bit me,” Leah said. “And then [it] tried to take me away. I picked up my hand, and it was all in blood, and I started screaming.”
After that, Leah said her father picked her up to bring her for help. Boca Grande fire officials had said Leah was flown to TGH, where she underwent a 6-hour surgery.
According to Dr. Alfred Hess, an orthopedic surgeon at TGH and Florida Orthopaedic Institute, the shark’s teeth were so sharp that they cut cleanly through Leah’s wrist. But this helped the doctors work on putting her hand back together promptly.
“First of all, we are celebrating a great outcome. I’m really happy about that,” Hess said. “I’ve worked here for 35 years doing this kind of work, and it is not always this happy.”
Other doctors recognized for their work to save Leah’s hand were identified as Dr. Joshua Linnell, also of TGH and Florida Orthopaedic Institute; Dr. Akshita Kumar, a pediatric surgeon at Muma Children’s Hospital at TGH and Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital; and Dr. Keith Thatch, the medical director of Pediatric Trauma and Surgery at Muma Children’s Hospital at TGH and Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital.
Leah said she’s now most excited to play with her siblings once her hand is better. And her family thanked the doctors for giving her the ability to do so.
“I was holding her hand in my hand,” Leah’s father remembered. “And I didn’t think there was any chance at all of saving it. And I’m just so thankful to the surgeons for making such a miracle.”
