Shark attack survivor Leah Stewart describes how she willed herself back to life when she lay dying on Coogee Beach – and her first words to her mother when she woke from her coma
A brave mother who fought off a shark to make sure her baby didn’t ‘grow up without a mum’ revealed her first words when she woke from a coma were ‘I love you.’
Leah Stewart, 35, spent ten days in a coma after being viciously mauled in the first shark attack at Sydney’s Coogee Beach in over a century on June 13, 2026.
A little over two months later, the determined mother has recovered enough to sit down and tell her tale.
Ms Stewart retains vivid memories of the attack, fighting off the shark with her bare hands, her rescue, and the rush to hospital.
However, she prefers to look back on the moment when she woke in St Vincent’s Hospital’s intensive care unit to find her mother by her side.
‘I love you,’ were the first words out of Ms Stewart’s mouth following her ordeal, she told 60 Minutes on Sunday.
Ms Stewart, a teacher and mother to one-year-old daughter August, was a regular swimmer at Coogee Beach and was relatively close to shore when she was attacked by the great white shark.
She recalled coming face-to-face with the four-metre beast and seeing its ‘black little beady eyes’ moments before it sunk its razor-sharp teeth into her thigh and arm.
Leah Stewart (pictured in hospital with her daughter, August, shortly after waking from a coma) survived a horror shark attack at Coogee Beach on June 13
Ms Stewart (pictured with her partner, Fernando) recalled thinking of her daughter and deciding to fight for her life
The confident swimmer was dragged under the water and was convinced she would die, but then she thought of her daughter.
‘She’s not going to have a mum. She’s going to grow up without a mum’ she recalled thinking, which became a turning point and she fought back even harder.
‘I twisted myself around, and I just started punching it over and over and over again, just punch, punch, punch,’ Ms Stewart said.
‘It was like fighting a dinosaur, it was so big. It was like punching a brick wall.
‘I was like, ”You ugly f***er, you are not taking me away from my daughter.”’
World champion paddleboarder Charlie Verco was training near Ms Stewart when he spotted her struggling in the water.
He helped prop her on his board with one arm while using the other to slowly paddle them, backwards, to shore. He recalled being unable to know where the shark was under the water because it had turned red with blood.
Off-duty surf lifesaver Ben Heenan then saw the pair and rushed to help them, while his partner, doctor Kassandra McGregor, called Triple Zero.
Several off-duty lifesavers and medical personnel happened to be on Coogee Beach on the day of the attack (pictured are emergency services at the scene)
Frontline trauma specialist Dr Ian Ferguson was grabbing a coffee nearby when he heard the screaming on the beach.
The impromptu medical team managed to keep Ms Stewart alive using tourniquets to stem the blood loss. Dr Ferguson also drilled into the bone marrow of her shoulders to give her infusions of fluid and blood because they could not find a vein due to the blood loss.
‘I was hopeful that she would survive to hospital, but I didn’t think it was a given at that point,’ Ferguson recalled.
Ms Stewart described the moment she felt herself almost slipping away as she was on the sand.
‘I… just felt like everything was leaving my body and I was going somewhere,’ she said.
‘Just as I was about to reach the end of the tunnel, I got a vision of August. I just knew I couldn’t leave her.
‘I said ”I can’t die right now, I can’t.” I know it sounds strange, but I sort of willed myself back.
‘And I opened my eyes and I could see everyone around me at that point.’
Ms Stewart’s (above) first words after waking from her coma were to her mother: ‘I love you’
Staff at the hospital were similarly sceptical about Ms Stewart’s odds of surviving.
For 10 torturous days, her loved ones waited to see if she would pull through the coma.
During that time, the 35-year-old underwent 11 surgeries for the extensive injuries to her left thigh and right arm. Her left arm had to be amputated.
Ms Stewart’s partner, Fernando, and her mother, Christine – a nurse, were constantly by her side.
She finally woke from her coma on June 23 and recalled feeling ‘really annoyed’ by a breathing tube down her throat.
‘I was waving to the nurses and anyone that was around, miming like ”Take it out, take it out, because it’s horrible,” and obviously they didn’t know what I was saying,’ Ms Stewart said.
‘Then my mum arrived. I just saw my mum and I just felt, ‘Okay, I’m alive, and Mum’s here.”
Christine was emotional when recalling the moment her daughter finally spoke.
Ms Stewart’s was the first shark attack at Coogee Beach (above) in over a century
‘Up until that point she’d been pretty sleepy, she hadn’t actually been looking in my eyes, but this time her eyes were fully aware, looking at me,’ she said.
‘Once they got the tube out, she just looked at me and she said, ”I love you.”’
Ms Stewart has spent the months since learning to walk and write again.
Thankfully, she didn’t suffer cognitive injury from the severe blood loss.
However, she still struggles to come to terms with her new disability.
‘There’s good days and bad days. For me, I’m still coming to terms that (my arm’s) not there,’ Ms Stewart said.
‘I get really frustrated. August will put up her hands and she’ll want me to pick her up. I’m just desperate too, I just can’t.’
But she’s doing her best to focus on the ‘small wins’.
‘It’s about like the little things, like now I can brush my teeth,’ Ms Stewart said.
‘I’m really proud of that. It’s so nice to brush your own teeth, not someone else doing it for you.’
