"Leah, who was nine when she was injured, and her mother spoke of their ordeal for the first time in an interview on CBS's Inside Edition on Monday night, recalling the shark attack and praising the skill of surgeons at Tampa general hospital (TGH). Leah was able to move two fingers within 24 hours of the operation, and is now undergoing intensive physical therapy to regain as much movement as possible."
"They told me that they are going to put my hand back, but I didn't really believe them. It's impossible, Leah said when asked what doctors told her ahead of the surgery. The fourth-grader said she barely saw the shark that bit her, which swam away quickly, but realized what had happened. I think I saw like its tail, and then it just let go, and then I scream out, and I see my hand just bleeding, and I knew it was a shark, she said."
"Video taken by a sheriff's deputy at the scene showed Nadia Lendel in a state of distress, telling responders what had happened. She told Inside Edition she was in the water three feet apart from her daughter when the shark swam in. It was just stump, and her wrist was just hanging off, and there was just blood squirting everywhere, she said through tears."
Ten-year-old Leah Lendel suffered a severe bite when a 9ft bull shark severed most of her right hand while she snorkeled with family at Boca Grande, Florida. Nearby construction workers applied a tourniquet and wrapped the wound until first responders arrived. Surgeons at Tampa General Hospital performed a six-hour reattachment operation that enabled Leah to move two fingers within 24 hours. Leah is undergoing intensive physical therapy to maximize regained movement and has resumed knitting for her Barbie dolls. Her mother described the scene as a bloody stump and praised the surgical team's skill during recovery.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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