On Wednesday, June 10, the Lendel family went snorkeling in Boca Grande, a beach 100 miles south of Tampa, Florida. While the father ventured off on his own, Nadia and three of her children explored the ocean together. At around noon, Nadia’s eldest child, Leah Lendel, screamed. Nadia looked over at her 9-year-old daughter and saw that her hand was bitten almost completely off, evidently by a shark.
The severed hand was covered in blood. Eventually, Leah walked out of the water by herself. The family believes she was in a state of shock.
Construction workers helped the family.
Once Leah’s father heard of his daughter’s condition, he swam to shore as fast as he could, Today reported. The family stated that construction workers who were near the incident, at the 2200 block of Shore Lane, were on their lunch break at the time of the bite. They fashioned a makeshift tourniquet out of a towel. Alfonso Tello, one of the construction workers, told WBBH, he believed the screams were just children playing initially.
‘Everybody was in shock,’ one of the construction workers said.
Eventually, he realized those screams were cries for help. “When we see that little girl come in, out from the water, with no hand … gets me,” Tello said, trailing off. “Like everybody was in shock.” Despite their surprise, the construction workers sprang into action, not only securing Leah’s hand, but calling 911 as well, the family reports.
Authorities believe it was a shark bite.
Boca Grande Fire Chief C.W. Blosser III confirmed that Leah’s injuries were consistent with a shark bite, WESH reported. But when responders arrived on the scene, the animal could not be found. Responders airlifted Leah to a local hospital. Her father traveled with her on the flight. When she arrived, doctors performed an extensive emergency surgery, Today reported.
Leah can move her fingers again.
“They had to get arteries from her leg to the hand,” Nadia told WBBH. “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.”
Leah’s uncle, Max Derinskiy, said there will likely be an extensive recovery process. “The doctors were able to do some miracles and put her hand back together,” the uncle told NBC News. “She will be in the hospital for a while and then a lot of physical therapy to hopefully get her hand functioning again.”
The Lendel family are encouraged by her progress. “…thank God, she can move her fingers,” Nadia told WBBH.
