A Sydney mother attacked by a shark at Coogee has been brought out of her coma more than a week after the attack.
The first words from a Sydney mum who has woken from a coma after being attacked by a shark at Coogee were “I love you”, her brother has revealed.
Leah Stewart was attacked at the popular beach on June 13.
She suffered life-threatening injuries with bites to her arms and legs, multiple fractured bones and massive blood loss.
Her brother Josh Stewart posted an update on Wednesday saying the beloved mum had been woken from a coma.
“After a week of life-support and repeat surgeries, doctors were able to extubate Leah and reduce her level of sedation to bring her out of the induced coma for a short period of time,” he said.
“This allowed Leah to share her first words, ‘I love you,’ with her mum and partner Fernando who have been by her side in ICU since the incident.
“Her first thoughts were with her daughter August and wanted to check she was okay.
“This is a lot faster than anyone expected, and for us this feels like a miracle and is everything so many of us have hoped and prayed for over the past week.”
Ms Stewart would remain in ICU for “some time”, her brother said.
Leah Stewart’s family say doctors were able to wake her from a coma for a short time.
The Long Road to Recovery and Community Support
“She has undergone five days of surgery over the past week, and is scheduled for further surgeries today and more through the coming weeks.
“Leah has a long road ahead and still remains in critical care, but this is such a positive first step and gives us hope for Leah’s long term recovery.
“Again thank you so much for everyone who continues to support Leah, through your care, prayer, love and generosity.”
The fundraiser set up by Mr Stewart has garnered more than $488,000, including $5000 from Bunnings and $2240 from the 4Seasons Swimmers Bondi.
This weekend, hundreds of swimmers gathered at Coogee Beach in frigid conditions in a sign of solidarity with Ms Stewart.
Randwick Mayor Dylan Parker said the event was “community at its best”.
“Being out there with the thousands of swimmers, you can just feel the warmth in what was pretty fresh water,” he said.
The NSW government announced on Wednesday it would fly drones above beaches year-round in the wake of a series of shark attacks.
The 35-year-old suffered catastrophic injuries in the attack.
Government Response and Technological Challenges
The state government has set aside $87m extra for shark mitigation in Tuesday’s budget, with more funding to come, but which beaches will have eyes in the sky is still to be confirmed.
Premier Chris Minns said shark sighting and attack numbers had increased, so the response had to follow suit.
“As a kid I used to surf from Mona Vale to Maroubra. The idea that I’m not comfortably able to do that anymore in my own backyard really hurts,” Mr Minns told Sunrise on Wednesday.
“It hurts a lot knowing that maybe something more can be done.”
Government departments were still working through which beaches would be covered, but “certainly” the major beaches of Sydney, and the popular tourist beaches in the north and south would be covered, Mr Minns said.
“I’ve got a question mark over the number of beaches that can be covered … We’ll have an announcement in relation to that very soon, including new money, including the use of new technology,” he said.
Drone technology that uses artificial intelligence to identify great white sharks needed to be developed though, Mr Minns said.
“Now, we believe that that science is available, but it’s not being commercially rolled out anywhere else in the world. And that that means that we have to invent it for Australian conditions.
“So give us time to do that. We think it can make a difference.”
Nothing could totally remove the presence or threat of sharks, Mr Minns said, as the animals moves across the vast Pacific Ocean.
“I can’t come on the program and promise that this will solve all of the problems or even that this won’t happen again,” Mr Minns told Sunrise.
“Some days (the great whites will) be in Hawaii, the next day they might be in New Zealand, and then the next day they might be off the coast of one of our Australian beaches. And that’s what we have to live with.
“We can mitigate it, but we cannot make it shark-proof.”
Joshua Stewart (right) said it was a ‘long road ahead’ for his sister.
Shark Activity and Environmental Factors
NSW was rocked by four attacks in 48 hours in January – one of which claimed the life of a 12-year-old boy.
Experts suspect these four incidents involved bull sharks.
In the wake of Ms Stewart’s attack, the boss of the NSW Department of Primary Industries’ shark program said 60 great whites had been tagged since January and those tagged sharks had been pinged 170 times by the “listening stations” since.
But no tagged white or tiger sharks were detected in and around Sydney on June 13.
Experts attribute the spate of attacks in January to heavy rainfall making sea water murky and attractive for sharks to hunt fish.