9-year-old girl flown to hospital after being bitten by shark in Florida
Leah Lendel was snorkelling with her family in Boca Grande when she was bitten by a shark, estimated by witnesses to be about eight feet long.
According to a statement from Lendel's family to Gulf Coast News, Leah went underwater to snorkel and as she came up, she began to scream. Her mother, Nadia, said she noticed that Leah's right hand up to the wrist was covered in blood and mostly torn off.
Nadia said she began to scream for help and nearby construction workers rushed over and helped wrap Leah's hand in a towel.
A local construction worker named Alfonso Tello told Today that he heard Lendel's screams coming from the beach.
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'I was thinking that they were playing around but they were screaming, 'Help, help!' and that's when we get up there and we see the little girl crying. Everybody was in shock,' Tello told the outlet.
'When we saw the little girl coming out of the water with no hand, it was like something out of a … it gets me like … everybody was in shock.'
The Boca Grande Fire Department, the Lee County Sheriff's Department and emergency services in Boca Grande responded to a call about a potential shark bite on Wednesday.
In a video shared to Facebook, Boca Grande Fire Chief C.W. Blosser said crews found a person with injuries 'that appeared to be consistent with a shark bite.'
'The person was treated and transported to a landing zone and airlifted to, we think, Tampa General Hospital for the person's injuries,' he said. 'The person was in the water at the time the bite occurred with other family members and they were able to get her out of the water and up to the road.'
Blosser added that this incident was the first shark bite on the island in 'about 20 years.'
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Lendel's mother shared an update on Instagram on Thursday and said that surgeons were able to put her daughter's hand back together.
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'Update on Our sweet Leah. Yesterday she had a very long surgery to save her hand (her wrists and fingers). Praise God Almighty for the Doctors, they were able to get blood flow to her entire hand and all of her fingers,' she wrote.
Lendel added that the doctors had to 'put pins to put all her bones together and take arteries from her leg to put in her hand.'
'From what I saw and the way her hand was hanging on by a thread i thought she would lose her hand for good but our God is a miracle maker,' she added.
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An update about Leah Lendel's injuries, shared by her mother on Instagram. Miss.Lendel / Instagram
One of Lendel's relatives, Max Derinskiy, has set up a GoFundMe page to help support the family after the 'life-altering event.'
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'While playing in the water with her siblings, she was bitten on her hand by a shark and had to be rushed to the hospital by Life Flight. We're thankful to Jesus for the quick response of emergency crews and the skill of the medical team, she is now stable and going through surgery – fighting hard for her road to recovery,' Derinskiy wrote.
He added that while the family is 'beyond grateful' that Lendel survived, 'the journey ahead will be long and full of physical and emotional healing.'
'The Life Flight alone comes with an overwhelming medical bill, not to mention the ongoing care she will need: possible surgeries, physical therapy, counseling, and more,' Derinskiy added.
Derinskiy said the GoFundMe will help to 'relieve some of the financial burden on her family during this unimaginable time as they do not currently have insurance.'
'Every donation —big or small—will go directly to medical expenses, travel costs for treatment, and anything else Leah needs to recover and feel herself again,' Derinskiy wrote.
The GoFundMe post has raised more than US$26,400 of its goal of $80,000 from 167 donations as of Thursday afternoon.
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A similar situation took place in February when a Canadian tourist was seriously injured when she was bitten while trying to 'engage' with a shark in Turks and Caicos.
The family of the tourist spoke out about the horrifying moment that 'completely altered' the woman's life after she 'attempted to engage with the animal from the shallows in an attempt to take photographs' on Friday, Feb. 7.
The victim's brother-in-law, Al Chevarie, said that while they were in 'only hip deep clear water,' a 'seven-foot bull shark came at my sister-in-law and bumped into her legs.'
He said the shark came back again and 'when she put both hands in front of her to protect herself, the shark cut off both of her hands, one at the mid forearm and the other at the wrist.'
Chevarie said his sister-in-law was taken to a local hospital for initial treatment 'but had to be flown back to Canada by air ambulance to undergo further surgery and recovery.'
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