A 9-year-old girl is on the mend at Tampa General Hospital after a harrowing shark attack off the coast of Boca Grande left her with severe injuries to her hand. Leah Lendel was snorkeling when the incident occurred on Wednesday, and according to her mother, Nadia Lendel, the young girl's hand was nearly severed from her wrist. Surgeons performed a 6-hour surgery to reattach her hand, which included transplanting arteries from her leg into her hand and installing pins into the bones. "They had to get arteries from her leg to the hand. Got the blood flow back to her hand. Install pins in bones. Still has open tissues. They will be monitoring her here for a week. But thank God she can move her fingers," Nadia Lendel told WBBH.
The child was able to walk herself to shore despite her injuries, as reported by Gulf Coast News Now. Her parents, who were in the water with Leah's siblings, responded to her screams for help. Leah's mother, holding two toddlers, was unable to immediately assist Leah and had to get the youngsters to safety first. Nearby construction workers rushed to assist, applying makeshift tourniquets from their shirts until first responders arrived to take over. Despite no shark being spotted in the aftermath of the attack, the severity of Leah's injuries led to her being airlifted for medical attention.
Shark encounters, while not common, are not unheard of in Florida, which often sees the highest frequency of shark bites in the United States. According to data from the International Shark Attack File, maintained by the Florida Museum of Natural History, the state recorded 14 unprovoked bites in 2024 alone. However, experts emphasize that such events are rare. "Increased amounts of visitors to the beaches in the summer months, combined with shark populations being at seasonal highs and sharks swimming closer to the shores to chase bait fish, can result in more shark attacks than in winter months but bites typically aren’t fatal," Dr. Jim Gelsleichter, a shark expert, stated in a news release, as reported by FOX 13 News.
As Leah recovers, the local community and authorities remind beachgoers to remain vigilant. Boca Grande Fire Department Chief C.W. Blosser III, referencing the rarity of such attacks in their specific locale, said, "When you get a call like that, you always hope for the best and prepare for to rapidly respond the worst, so to speak," according to Gulf Coast News Now. In the meantime, a GoFundMe page has been established by friends to aid in Leah's recovery, expressing gratitude for the quick response by emergency crews and the child's fighting spirit on her road to recovery.
