Shark attack survivor’s son erupts in fury after radio hosts ripped into brave mum who lost her arm in desperate fight for life

A shark attack expert whose father survived a brutal great white attack has hit back at the radio hosts who accused a survivor of embellishing her harrowing escape.

On Sunday Leah Stewart wept as she told 60 Minutes how she thought about her daughter growing up without her before deciding which arm to punch the shark with, and remembering it felt like hitting a brick wall.

The next day Melbourne’s FoxFM radio trio Kate Langbroek, Brendan Fevola and Nick Cody questioned if Ms Stewart would have had ‘time to think’ during the attack.

But now Andrew Fox, the son of a shark attack victim, says his father’s recollection of his near-death experience is just as detailed as the mother-of-one’s.

Mr Fox’s father Rodney survived a great white attack in South Australia in 1963 and recalled the terrifying encounter in extraordinary detail.

‘The doubters are always jumping in with opinion but anybody that’s been through near-death experience will know an infinite number of possibilities are processed by your brain in microseconds,’ Mr Fox told the Daily Mail.

‘My dad has told me the same detailed story a hundred times over the years.

‘At first he actually thought he had been hit by a train and then he remembered he was underwater so he thought it must have been a submarine and then he realised it was a shark.’

Rodney was 23, newly married and spearfishing off Aldinga Beach south of Adelaide when the shark clamped its jaws around his torso.

In an attempt to break free, he gouged its eyes but in the tussle, he ripped his arm across its teeth, before he held the shark in a bear hug as the water filled with blood.

He was on the verge of drowning before he swam to the surface, only to see the shark right behind him.

He kicked at it and the shark instead swallowed a fish float on his belt.

Even today, it’s still regarded as one of the most severe great white shark attacks that anyone has ever survived.

‘These are just microseconds but he thought about a friend of his who had been bitten by a shark and then remembered he needed to poke the shark in the eye,’ said Mr Fox.

‘He doesn’t know if he managed to do that or not, he got smashed and he was fighting for his life then his arm was in its jaw.

‘He remembers all of that.’

During the controversial radio segment the trio replayed part of Ms Stewart’s interview in which she recalled coming face to face with the shark.

In the moment before it bit her, she chose to hit it with her left arm because it was the arm she was more ‘willing to lose’.

‘I was on the couch with my wife Alex going, “She’s lying! Too much time to think!” You’re not thinking all that, are you?’ Fevola told listeners.

Co-host Langbroek, filling in for regular presenter Fifi Box, tried to defend Ms Stewart.

‘Mercifully, we don’t know,’ she cautioned Fevola. ‘But it does seem unusual. The only other person I know who’s punched a shark is (professional surfer) Mick Fanning.

‘He said at the time he didn’t even have a chance to think about what he was doing, it was like a reflex.’

But Fevola still believed Ms Stewart was embellishing the story.

Mr Fox, who runs the Fox Shark Research Foundation, understands why the radio stars may question that recollection in such vivid detail but says the criticism is unfair.

He says the hosts need to remember Ms Stewart has experienced severe trauma and some of her memory could have been created long before the attack.

‘She may have pushed her left arm forward because she plays tennis or had a fall on it previously and it’s a natural reaction for her,’ he said.

‘Her brain may already be pre-programmed to do that because of something unrelated.

‘Then after, when you are recovering, you try to make sense of everything that happened and go over it, questioning everything and you recall more and more.

‘I know Dad would convey that same sentiment too.’

Ms Stewart lost part of her left arm in the attack and recalled going into survival mode as she thought about her one-year-old daughter, August and stared into the shark’s ‘black little beady eyes’.

‘She’s not going to have a mum,’ Ms Stewart told the show. ‘She’s going to grow up without a mum.

‘I twisted myself around, and I just started punching it over and over and over again, just punch, punch, punch.

‘I was like, “You ugly f***er, you are not taking me away from my daughter.” ‘It was like fighting a dinosaur – it was so big. It was like punching a brick wall.’

Mr Fox says her recollection almost mirrors his father’s.

‘Your life is flashing before your eyes and they are not thinking about the attack, its about their reaction to stop it,’ he said.

‘It’s an interesting phenomenon, she has lost her arm and people are being aggressive and judging her.

‘People can really nit-pick at people’s credibility, but her reality is just in survival mode and recounting what happened. It’s sad this happened.’

The radio hosts’ comments, first reported by the Daily Mail on Tuesday night, sparked a furious backlash with listeners.

Many accused the trio of ‘poor form’, while others called for the breakfast presenters to be sacked.

‘Let’s add to her trauma and grief by undermining the magnitude of her experience,’ one listener wrote.

‘How utterly strong and brave is the inner spirit and fighting will in this survivor to will herself to live for her child and loved ones. 

‘There is a hard lifelong road ahead of her and she is a battler. Why do these utter degenerates have a platform to spout their garbage in the first place. 

‘Fire them pronto!’

Another added: ‘Overpaid armchair shark attack experts talking crap and trying to leverage off a genuine hero’s experience. 

‘I’m surprised people tune in to listen to these pathetic losers.’

‘What a sad world we now live in,’ said another. ‘Why would Fev, or anyone else for that matter, question this incredible woman that escaped a certain death, thanks to a team of incredibly selfless, skilled strangers?

‘I was in awe of her bravery, courage and determination.’