TAMPA, FLA. (WSVN) – A 9-year-old girl is speaking out and sharing her story, just over a week after she was bitten by a shark while vacationing with her family at a Florida beach.
Leah Lendel addressed the harrowing moment she realized she was being attacked by a marine predator.
“I didn’t see anything. I was just snorkeling, and I went up to breathe, and then something hard bit me, and then it tried to take me away,” she said.
At the time, Leah said, she was snorkeling with her family north of Fort Myers, at Boca Grande, when the shark targeted her, June 11.
When she saw her hand, Leah quickly cried out for help.
“I picked up my hand, and it’s all in blood. Then I started screaming with my mom,” she said, “and then my dad was with me. He picked me up, then we ran to the road.”
Paramedics airlifted Leah to Tampa General Hospital, where she underwent emergency surgery.
The procedure lasted hours, but doctors were able to save her hand.
Her mother, Nadia Lendel, credited a nearby construction crew who quickly responded to the screams.
“When they saw her hand, it was really, really hard for them, you know, to see them, kind of like, grab their hearts,” she said. “They were right on the phone, they were calling [911].”
Leah’s father, Jay Lendel, had taken the family to the beach the day of the bite. He said he couldn’t have imagined something like this happening to his daughter, but he’s very thankful she’s still with him.
“I was trying to hold myself together, I think I was crying more than she was, so, but yeah, it was a very, very quick response,” he said. “I’m just thankful for everybody that, yeah, I’m just very thankful she’s alive.”
Doctors said Leah’s road to recovery is off to a strong start, but there’s still a long way to go.
Despite that, her parents remain optimistic.
“I didn’t think she was gonna have a hand. It was really, really bad,” said Nadia. “It’s some sort of miracle that God did in our life that now she has a hand, and when my husband said, ‘Hey, she can move two fingers,’ I was just like, ‘Praise God.'”
Once her hand heals, Leah said, she will be right back in the water.
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