# Shark Attack Survivor: “It pulled me under the water” | Coogee Great White Shark Victim Leah Stewart

An episode of [Straight Talk with Mark Bouris](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1572546872), 19 Oct 2026, 56 min.

Audio: https://p.podderapp.com/2544644999/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/2fb3740d-3436-44af-8cc0-a91900716aa5/1c4759f0-81fc-4f35-85d1-b305004fc1e8/8bec7ff7-0de1-4bff-bfe8-b4e800732ffe/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=573776d2-4dbd-4f2f-a825-b305004fc1ef

Four months ago, Leah Stewart went for a swim at Coogee Beach and woke up from an 11-day coma missing an arm. She was attacked by a great white shark in the middle of the day, close to shore, doing everything right. This is the full, unfiltered account — what it felt like to be dragged underwater, how she fought back, the near-death experience that almost took her, and the one thing that pulled her back. If you've ever wondered what it actually takes to survive the unsurvivable, this is it. Executive Producer: Samuel Morgan Head of Production: Jonah Mclachlan Join my exclusive Mentored community: https://mentored.com.au Subscribe to the Mentored newsletter here: https://the-mentored-platform-pty-ltd.myklpages.com/l/WWJGc5 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Leah Stewart, welcome to Straight Talk. How are you going?
[0:02] Speaker 2: Thank you. I'm doing really well.
[0:03] Speaker 1: That's the most important question. How are you going? How
[0:06] Speaker 1: are you feeling?
[0:08] Speaker 2: It's been a whirlwind four months and I keep on
[0:10] Speaker 2: reminding myself it's only been four months.
[0:13] Speaker 1: Is that all?
[0:13] Speaker 2: Wow. And the fact that I can walk into your studio,
[0:18] Speaker 2: speak with you, be home with my daughter, that's everything.
[0:22] Speaker 2: So doing really good.
[0:24] Speaker 1: All of a sudden your life is, apart from your
[0:27] Speaker 1: injuries and apart from the horrific event, Your life has
[0:30] Speaker 1: changed dramatically. Yes. How's that whirlwind like?
[0:37] Speaker 2: Well, for me, I'm just a girl that went for
[0:40] Speaker 2: a swim, woke up 11 days later from a coma,
[0:45] Speaker 2: and I looked at my mum and my partner, Finanjo,
[0:47] Speaker 2: and I said, oh, does anyone know about this? And
[0:51] Speaker 2: they didn't.
[0:51] Speaker 1: They just smiled.
[0:53] Speaker 2: And they're like, oh, everyone knows.
[0:56] Speaker 1: And.
[0:57] Speaker 2: So it is very strange just to be thrust into
[1:01] Speaker 2: the spotlight in that way. In a way, it can
[1:06] Speaker 2: be quite daunting. I get stopped on the street quite
[1:08] Speaker 2: a bit. But usually it's beautiful people just saying, I'm
[1:11] Speaker 2: so glad you're here. I'm so glad you're doing well.
[1:14] Speaker 2: And also, I'm really thankful that I am able to,
[1:18] Speaker 2: for example, speak with the Premier and hopefully make an
[1:21] Speaker 2: impact so that no one has to go through what
[1:23] Speaker 2: I went through or help mitigate that risk.
[1:26] Speaker 1: From what I can see, you come from a fairly
[1:28] Speaker 1: humble environment and certainly haven't let this go to your head.
[1:32] Speaker 1: Do you ever think, well, do I sort of deserve
[1:36] Speaker 1: this or why am I here? Like, was this meant
[1:39] Speaker 1: to happen?
[1:40] Speaker 2: It is so hard to comprehend. And even in regards
[1:44] Speaker 2: to people that have survived a shark attack, I'm not
[1:48] Speaker 2: the only one. But I felt like my story... went
[1:52] Speaker 2: quite wide and I'm still trying to comprehend with that
[1:56] Speaker 2: I met with a shark expert yesterday and I even
[1:59] Speaker 2: had that question for him I'm like why do you
[2:00] Speaker 2: think my story was picked.
[2:02] Speaker 1: Up a little bit yeah that's what I'm trying to
[2:03] Speaker 1: figure out and.
[2:04] Speaker 2: He said to me it's a popular beach so the
[2:07] Speaker 2: fact that it was Coogee and the fact that you
[2:09] Speaker 2: were so close to shore technically doing everything right he
[2:13] Speaker 2: thinks that's why it went quite wide but then he
[2:15] Speaker 2: said also you know you're just like an everyday person
[2:17] Speaker 2: and it reminds people that it could be any of us.
[2:21] Speaker 1: I'm always fascinated with people who can deal with difficult
[2:26] Speaker 1: situations and, indeed, your case, trauma. I'm fascinated with the
[2:29] Speaker 1: background of that individual. I mean, where they come from
[2:33] Speaker 1: and how they– when I see you on TV and
[2:37] Speaker 1: other places, I'm like, what the hell? How is this
[2:42] Speaker 1: person able to deal with this? As you said, it's
[2:46] Speaker 1: only four months.
[2:46] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[2:47] Speaker 1: You're sitting here bright-eyed to me.
[2:50] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[2:51] Speaker 1: My sense I'm getting from you, you feel very stable, level-headed.
[2:54] Speaker 1: In fact, you feel like you're on top of it.
[2:57] Speaker 1: And in fact, for me, you feel like you're nearly
[2:59] Speaker 1: using it to do some good. What does your life
[3:03] Speaker 1: story look like prior to all this? So as a kid,
[3:06] Speaker 1: who are you? What was your life like?
[3:08] Speaker 2: Yeah. So I'm very much from just an average family.
[3:15] Speaker 2: My mum's a nurse and my dad is actually a minister.
[3:18] Speaker 2: And I grew up on a farm, so 800 acres,
[3:21] Speaker 2: very isolating.
[3:22] Speaker 1: It's quite a big farm.
[3:23] Speaker 2: It's a big farm. It was my grandparents' farm. So
[3:26] Speaker 2: I grew up there. And you have to learn how
[3:29] Speaker 2: to just be there by yourself. I had my brother.
[3:33] Speaker 2: You have to be quite self-sufficient. Funnily enough, I grew
[3:38] Speaker 2: up with a lot of wild animals. And I think
[3:41] Speaker 2: that prepared me for what was to come.
[3:43] Speaker 1: Wild animals. Yeah.
[3:44] Speaker 2: So on a property, you come across brown snakes, black snakes, goannas,
[3:48] Speaker 2: wild dogs, dingoes. So you always have in the back
[3:51] Speaker 2: of your head, okay, if I come across this, what
[3:53] Speaker 2: do I do? In regards to preparing me for this,
[3:57] Speaker 2: I don't think anything can prepare you for this. I'm
[4:01] Speaker 2: naturally very optimistic. And when I was in the coma,
[4:04] Speaker 2: my friends were saying, if anyone can get through this,
[4:07] Speaker 2: it's Leah. If anyone can make something good out of this-
[4:11] Speaker 2: It's Leah. I don't know what it was that helped
[4:14] Speaker 2: me to just be able to handle this. And if
[4:17] Speaker 2: you'd asked me at the beginning of the year, oh,
[4:20] Speaker 2: you're going to be attached by a great white shark.
[4:23] Speaker 2: You're going to lose your arm and some of your leg.
[4:26] Speaker 2: I would have thought I would have crumbled. I wouldn't
[4:28] Speaker 2: have thought that I'd come out the other side. But
[4:31] Speaker 2: I think the reason that I'm doing so well is
[4:35] Speaker 2: because I basically had a death experience. And I thought
[4:41] Speaker 2: I was going to die. When I was under the
[4:42] Speaker 2: water with the shark, I did think I was going
[4:45] Speaker 2: to die. And when I was on the sand, my
[4:47] Speaker 2: heart stopped. And so I know how bad the alternative is.
[4:52] Speaker 2: So the fact that four months later, I'm walking, talking,
[4:56] Speaker 2: speaking with different people, I'm so appreciative of that because
[5:00] Speaker 2: I know how bad the alternative was.
[5:02] Speaker 1: Do you feel as though you're so close to death?
[5:05] Speaker 1: What's that feeling like? I mean, was there a point
[5:08] Speaker 1: at which... You felt that like a particular point?
[5:11] Speaker 2: Yes. So I was on the sand and I had
[5:16] Speaker 2: lost so much blood that I wasn't bleeding.
[5:19] Speaker 1: This is up on the beach.
[5:19] Speaker 2: This is on the beach. They'd pulled me from the water.
[5:23] Speaker 2: I was lying on the sand and all of a
[5:27] Speaker 2: sudden I felt like I was going through a black
[5:31] Speaker 2: hole and I was just zooming through it and I
[5:34] Speaker 2: could just, I was going so fast through it and
[5:37] Speaker 2: I could feel blood almost like my body was floating
[5:41] Speaker 2: above my physical body. And what was really painful and difficult,
[5:47] Speaker 2: because I'd lost so much blood, I couldn't breathe. I
[5:50] Speaker 2: didn't have enough oxygen. And it was just horrible to
[5:53] Speaker 2: be in my body. But then all of a sudden,
[5:54] Speaker 2: I sort of started lifting out of my body and
[5:57] Speaker 2: everything was moving really fast. And I started to feel
[6:00] Speaker 2: almost euphoric. It started to feel really good.
[6:04] Speaker 1: Wow.
[6:05] Speaker 2: And I just, I almost wanted to give into it.
[6:09] Speaker 2: Because I thought, oh, this is easier. It's easier just
[6:12] Speaker 2: to sort of float away. It felt like floating away.
[6:15] Speaker 2: And that's when I had just the image of my daughter, August,
[6:20] Speaker 2: my one-year-old daughter, August. And I knew that I couldn't
[6:25] Speaker 2: leave her. And I knew if I gave into that feeling.
[6:28] Speaker 1: More obligation?
[6:30] Speaker 2: It was love. Love.
[6:33] Speaker 1: You couldn't bear to be without her.
[6:35] Speaker 2: I couldn't. And it was love. It was the thought
[6:37] Speaker 2: of her growing up without a mom. She was only
[6:40] Speaker 2: 16 months old when this happened, so she wouldn't have
[6:42] Speaker 2: even probably remembered me. And I didn't want to leave her.
[6:48] Speaker 2: And it was so difficult, but it sounds really strange,
[6:52] Speaker 2: but I had to kind of will myself back into
[6:55] Speaker 2: my body and not give into that feeling of just
[7:00] Speaker 2: slipping away. And I wheeled myself back, and then that
[7:05] Speaker 2: would probably be the time that they were resuscitating me
[7:07] Speaker 2: as well. And I remember opening my eyes, and I
[7:10] Speaker 2: just had a big gasp of air. Yeah, so that
[7:16] Speaker 2: would be the death experience, but it was just going
[7:19] Speaker 2: into darkness.
[7:20] Speaker 1: I remember once Kerry Packard told me, because he had
[7:26] Speaker 1: numerous heart attacks, one of which he was dead, for
[7:31] Speaker 1: a period of time before they revived him. And he said,
[7:34] Speaker 1: there's nothing on the other side. So live your life
[7:38] Speaker 1: here as well as you can. Are you a religious person?
[7:42] Speaker 1: And was there any religious-spiritual moment when you felt yourself
[7:47] Speaker 1: above your own body?
[7:48] Speaker 2: It's hard to answer that. For me, it's not like
[7:53] Speaker 2: I saw a light or felt a spiritual presence.
[7:57] Speaker 1: Because some people say that.
[7:59] Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I didn't have that experience. It was just
[8:01] Speaker 2: going into darkness. But it felt.
[8:03] Speaker 1: What do you mean that? I don't understand. You mean
[8:07] Speaker 1: when you felt like you were going into a dark
[8:09] Speaker 1: place or everything, there was no light coming into your eyes?
[8:14] Speaker 2: There was no light coming into your eyes. You know
[8:17] Speaker 2: how some people say, oh, I died and I saw
[8:19] Speaker 2: the light and that kind of thing? That didn't happen
[8:22] Speaker 2: for me. I was zooming down... like a black hole
[8:28] Speaker 2: kind of thing, like I was going into space or something,
[8:30] Speaker 2: but I know it wasn't. And then it just felt
[8:33] Speaker 2: like I was coming to the end of the tunnel,
[8:35] Speaker 2: which was just black. It was just almost like lights out,
[8:39] Speaker 2: you're gone. That's what it felt like. I didn't have
[8:42] Speaker 2: a religious experience, like some people describe. It's hard to
[8:49] Speaker 2: say exactly what it was, but it was just lights out.
[8:52] Speaker 2: Once you get to the tunnel, that's it. That's what
[8:53] Speaker 2: it felt like for me.
[8:55] Speaker 1: And when you thought of your daughter, obviously that was
[8:58] Speaker 1: an overwhelming thing, but did you have a vision of her?
[9:02] Speaker 2: Yeah, I did. I had this little vision of her.
[9:08] Speaker 2: We have a playroom for her and it's so clear
[9:10] Speaker 2: in my head. She was wearing this pink outfit and
[9:14] Speaker 2: she was just there sort of smiling at me in
[9:17] Speaker 2: the playroom and it was as clear as day. I
[9:22] Speaker 2: could see that and I thought, no, I want to
[9:23] Speaker 2: get back to that place.
[9:25] Speaker 1: Wow. That's like, makes me get goosebumps.
[9:29] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[9:30] Speaker 1: Like overwhelming.
[9:31] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[9:31] Speaker 1: Your love and affection and your, you know, your maternal
[9:36] Speaker 1: instinct may well have saved your life in some respects.
[9:39] Speaker 1: I mean, obviously the lifeguards are trying to save your
[9:41] Speaker 1: life in a physical sense, but it clearly must require
[9:44] Speaker 1: some will. We often talk about the importance of the
[9:47] Speaker 1: lifeguards and all the equipment and everything that happened. And
[9:49] Speaker 1: you were pretty lucky in some respects. You had Charlie
[9:52] Speaker 1: who was on the beach, in the water. you know,
[9:54] Speaker 1: a world champion paddleboarder. And then he got you in.
[9:57] Speaker 1: Then you had some great lifeguards. on the beach who
[10:00] Speaker 1: could actually knew how to resuscitate you. But it seems
[10:03] Speaker 1: to me that there's another side to all this is
[10:06] Speaker 1: that the person who's being treated needs to have an
[10:10] Speaker 1: overwhelming will to survive.
[10:13] Speaker 2: I would say so, yes. It was an active decision
[10:18] Speaker 2: to fight to be here because I was very much
[10:22] Speaker 2: in the balance where I could have just given into
[10:23] Speaker 2: it and that was it.
[10:24] Speaker 1: Is that because it was too much pain or shock
[10:26] Speaker 1: or whatever the case may be? Or was it, okay,
[10:29] Speaker 1: this is not a bad feeling. I don't mind giving
[10:30] Speaker 1: into it. What was that?
[10:32] Speaker 2: Firstly, yes, you're in a terrible place physically. I couldn't breathe.
[10:38] Speaker 2: And it's easier just to be like, okay, I'm just
[10:40] Speaker 2: going to float away kind of thing. It felt like that.
[10:42] Speaker 2: You're just going to float away. It's done.
[10:44] Speaker 1: It's over.
[10:44] Speaker 2: And it's over. Yeah. So it was easy in that sense.
[10:48] Speaker 2: But it was also the active decision to say, no,
[10:53] Speaker 2: I'm going to stay in my body. I couldn't breathe.
[10:56] Speaker 2: I was thinking I've got to try and just like
[10:59] Speaker 2: stay awake. It's like if you pass out, I felt
[11:02] Speaker 2: like if I passed out, I'd just slip away. So
[11:04] Speaker 2: it's like, no, you've got to try and wake yourself up.
[11:06] Speaker 2: You've got to try and stay.
[11:07] Speaker 1: Sort of stay conscious.
[11:09] Speaker 2: Yeah, it was like that. And I think I was
[11:13] Speaker 2: very much on the edge of could have gone either way.
[11:16] Speaker 2: And if I gave into it, I don't know, it
[11:18] Speaker 2: was just like a fight in my body. And I've
[11:23] Speaker 2: been told by the doctors that I actually managed to
[11:26] Speaker 2: stay awake. When I got to ER, I was still awake.
[11:29] Speaker 2: And when they got me to the operating room, they
[11:31] Speaker 2: couldn't put me to sleep because they couldn't access any veins.
[11:34] Speaker 2: So I actually was awake for the first part of
[11:36] Speaker 2: my operation to save my life. And they said it
[11:39] Speaker 2: was your fight response that was keeping you alive. Like
[11:43] Speaker 2: obviously it's the blood and the transfusions they're giving, but
[11:46] Speaker 2: they're like it was also you that was just fighting
[11:48] Speaker 2: to be here. And I can't articulate the science behind that,
[11:55] Speaker 2: but it felt very real to me that it was
[11:58] Speaker 2: an active decision to stay.
[12:00] Speaker 1: Wow. That's amazing. Do you mind if I ask you
[12:06] Speaker 1: any questions that you don't feel comfortable with? Let me know.
[12:09] Speaker 1: But I'm extraordinarily curious about everything. Me too.
[12:13] Speaker 2: It's fine.
[12:14] Speaker 1: So if we can go back to the moment you
[12:16] Speaker 1: were in the water.
[12:17] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[12:18] Speaker 1: How it all happened? Like do you mind taking me
[12:21] Speaker 1: through that step by step?
[12:22] Speaker 2: So I– that day it's very frustrating to me. I
[12:27] Speaker 2: had three other things that I should have been doing
[12:29] Speaker 2: that day and all three cancelled on me. So I
[12:35] Speaker 2: love to swim.
[12:35] Speaker 1: As in do laps and stuff? Yeah, do laps.
[12:39] Speaker 2: So that's what I do for exercise. Usually I go
[12:41] Speaker 2: to the pool, Wiley's Baths, and I was on my
[12:44] Speaker 2: way to the pool and I looked at the ocean
[12:46] Speaker 2: and it was crystal clear and the most beautiful pristine day.
[12:49] Speaker 2: The last day you would expect this to happen. I thought, oh,
[12:52] Speaker 2: do you know what? I'll just do it in the
[12:53] Speaker 2: ocean today.
[12:54] Speaker 1: Other people swimming too?
[12:55] Speaker 2: Yeah, there was probably about 30 to 50 people out
[13:00] Speaker 2: there that day doing laps a lot further out than
[13:03] Speaker 2: I was. I was doing my laps. I... swim up
[13:08] Speaker 2: and down the bay but I was quite close to
[13:10] Speaker 2: the sand um and I was on my final lap
[13:13] Speaker 2: so I'd probably swum about 1.2 kilometers before this um
[13:20] Speaker 2: and I heard a girl that was further out in
[13:22] Speaker 2: the water screen and I quickly looked and I could
[13:26] Speaker 2: see the fin of the shark behind her I thought
[13:31] Speaker 2: I was dreaming. It just didn't feel real.
[13:34] Speaker 1: You got goggles on, I guess.
[13:36] Speaker 2: I had goggles, yeah, goggles, swim cap, the whole thing.
[13:41] Speaker 2: We started screaming in the water, waving, trying to get attention,
[13:46] Speaker 2: but it didn't seem like anyone was reacting. I couldn't
[13:48] Speaker 2: see anyone running to get things. I was hoping there
[13:51] Speaker 2: would be a jet ski around. There wasn't. So for
[13:54] Speaker 2: about a minute, we were screaming for help as the
[13:57] Speaker 2: shark came circled the girls that were further out and
[14:00] Speaker 2: then went in between them and I, I was about
[14:02] Speaker 2: 15 to 20 meters away from them, went around them
[14:07] Speaker 2: and was kind of circling in between us. I couldn't
[14:11] Speaker 2: see anyone coming. So I thought I'm going to try
[14:13] Speaker 2: and start moving towards the beach. In retrospect, I wish
[14:17] Speaker 2: I hadn't have done that because potentially if I just
[14:20] Speaker 2: stayed really still, it would have just swum off. But
[14:23] Speaker 2: as soon as I started moving, I did about four
[14:26] Speaker 2: strokes of freestyle. It just launched towards me. And I
[14:31] Speaker 2: don't know if it was intuition or the movement in
[14:34] Speaker 2: the water, but I just thought, oh, quickly stop, turn around.
[14:37] Speaker 2: And I could see it as it was coming really
[14:38] Speaker 2: quickly towards me. And I noticed it from about three
[14:43] Speaker 2: meters away, two meters away. And it got so close
[14:45] Speaker 2: and just kept coming closer and closer. And at this point,
[14:47] Speaker 2: it was moving slowly, inquisitively. It got to about 30
[14:53] Speaker 2: centimeters from my face.
[14:55] Speaker 1: Maybe we're talking about this close.
[14:57] Speaker 2: This close. Like it was there.
[14:58] Speaker 1: Was your head in the water?
[15:00] Speaker 2: Yes. I had my goggles on. I was trying to
[15:02] Speaker 2: keep an eye on it.
[15:03] Speaker 1: So you could see it?
[15:04] Speaker 2: Yeah, as clear as day. The images of its face
[15:08] Speaker 2: still really haunts me.
[15:09] Speaker 1: What does that– tell me.
[15:10] Speaker 2: Can you sort of– The thing that really stuck out
[15:14] Speaker 2: to me was its eyes because we were making eye
[15:16] Speaker 2: contact for quite a long time. Yes. And everything in
[15:21] Speaker 2: your body is saying, turn around, leave this. But I knew–
[15:25] Speaker 2: That if I turned, it could potentially attack me from behind.
[15:28] Speaker 2: And if it's going to attack me, I'd rather it
[15:31] Speaker 2: come front on so I can try and do something.
[15:35] Speaker 2: But we were just staring at each other and it
[15:37] Speaker 2: was moving slowly around me, just nonstop looking at each other.
[15:42] Speaker 2: And it got even closer than 30 centimeters. So, I
[15:46] Speaker 2: don't know, like even closer. And as it got closer,
[15:49] Speaker 2: I felt like it was about to figure me out.
[15:53] Speaker 2: I don't think it was looking to eat me. I
[15:56] Speaker 2: think it was trying to figure out what I was.
[15:58] Speaker 2: And because sharks obviously don't have hands, they use their
[16:00] Speaker 2: mouths to find out what it is. And it kind
[16:04] Speaker 2: of looked like it would have gone for my face
[16:06] Speaker 2: or my body. And in that moment, I'd actually thought, well,
[16:11] Speaker 2: which limb am I willing to lose? I'm right-handed. So
[16:16] Speaker 2: I thought, let's block it with my left arm.
[16:18] Speaker 1: You thought that? Wow.
[16:19] Speaker 2: Yeah. And it was just a really quick like, oh, which– Like,
[16:24] Speaker 2: how am I going to live with it?
[16:25] Speaker 1: You turned into it.
[16:26] Speaker 2: Even part of me was like, should I kick it?
[16:28] Speaker 2: I'm glad I didn't.
[16:29] Speaker 1: Why?
[16:30] Speaker 2: I think now that I've lost my left arm, I
[16:33] Speaker 2: think you can still, you can just like get up
[16:35] Speaker 2: in the night and you can walk to the bathroom.
[16:37] Speaker 1: So you're better off to lose a leg than a leg. Yeah, exactly.
[16:41] Speaker 2: Yeah. So if I was to choose a limb, I
[16:42] Speaker 2: think left arm is the one that I would have chosen.
[16:45] Speaker 2: I put up my left arm in front of my
[16:49] Speaker 2: face to kind of block it. And that's when it,
[16:52] Speaker 2: grabbed onto my forearm and it de-gloved my forearm.
[16:59] Speaker 1: It bit it off.
[17:00] Speaker 2: It didn't bite off my arm. So I still had
[17:03] Speaker 2: my hand attached, but it pulled off the muscle, the skin,
[17:06] Speaker 2: the veins, everything. The only thing left was bone.
[17:09] Speaker 1: Whoa.
[17:11] Speaker 2: So it was my elbow and then bone and then
[17:14] Speaker 2: my hand was still attached. It still had the skin
[17:17] Speaker 2: and everything on it, but there was nothing, no tissue.
[17:20] Speaker 2: And I just looked down. I could see my hand
[17:22] Speaker 2: floating and then the bone. But I was still in
[17:28] Speaker 2: so much danger then. You don't have time to be
[17:31] Speaker 2: dwelling on that. But I just had the quick image
[17:32] Speaker 2: in my mind saying, okay, well, I've lost my arm.
[17:38] Speaker 2: But I don't want to die. So it did that.
[17:42] Speaker 2: And then it pulled away for a few seconds.
[17:45] Speaker 1: Did it just swim away?
[17:46] Speaker 2: No, it just kind of pulled back. Less than a meter.
[17:50] Speaker 2: And I'm treading water.
[17:52] Speaker 1: So you couldn't stand up or anything?
[17:56] Speaker 2: No. It wasn't that deep though, but I don't know,
[18:00] Speaker 2: probably about three meters, four meters deep. The next moment,
[18:06] Speaker 2: it started barging me with its body.
[18:08] Speaker 1: Like pushing you?
[18:09] Speaker 2: Pushing me around, kind of like what you would imagine
[18:11] Speaker 2: it does to a seal. It's just pushing me in
[18:14] Speaker 2: the water. And I'm above the water at this time
[18:16] Speaker 2: because I'm still kind of staying above water and it's
[18:18] Speaker 2: pushing me around. That's when I started thinking, wow, this
[18:22] Speaker 2: is really serious. I think it had smelled the blood
[18:25] Speaker 2: in the water and that had triggered it to become
[18:29] Speaker 2: a bit more frenzied.
[18:30] Speaker 1: Yeah, a bit more excited.
[18:31] Speaker 2: Yeah, pushing me around. And the thing that haunts me
[18:36] Speaker 2: today is like the sound of my own screams at
[18:38] Speaker 2: that point because I just was screaming for anyone to
[18:41] Speaker 2: come help me. And I'm above water just getting knocked
[18:45] Speaker 2: around and its body was so strong. It was just
[18:49] Speaker 2: pure muscle. and it felt impossible to me. I'm just
[18:55] Speaker 2: like a person, not a particularly strong person, and I'm like,
[18:59] Speaker 2: there's no chance. And then the next moment, it went
[19:05] Speaker 2: below me and then came from below and grabbed onto
[19:08] Speaker 2: my left upper thigh with its mouth, and it pulled
[19:13] Speaker 2: me underwater really quickly. And the strange thing about when
[19:19] Speaker 2: you have an experience like this, your brain works so quickly.
[19:24] Speaker 2: And it just, it's like I knew what to do
[19:28] Speaker 2: at that time. And I knew that I couldn't breathe
[19:30] Speaker 2: in water. And I knew that I had to take
[19:32] Speaker 2: a really quick breath. So as it was pulling me under,
[19:34] Speaker 2: I just quickly held my breath and it pulled me
[19:37] Speaker 2: under the water and it slammed me into the sand.
[19:41] Speaker 2: And I was facing down, I was facing down towards
[19:44] Speaker 2: the sand. It was holding on to my left upper
[19:47] Speaker 2: thigh and that's when I thought I'm definitely going to
[19:52] Speaker 2: die and I it was just a horrible at that
[19:58] Speaker 2: point before that I just had pure fear it was
[20:01] Speaker 2: terror and when I realized I'm going to die the
[20:05] Speaker 2: terror left me and it became anger Because I wanted
[20:11] Speaker 2: to be with my daughter. I wanted to be with
[20:12] Speaker 2: my family. I wasn't ready to die. And I thought, well,
[20:15] Speaker 2: the only thing I can do is fight it with
[20:18] Speaker 2: absolutely everything. I don't have like anything else I can do.
[20:24] Speaker 2: So I started by punching it on the body and
[20:27] Speaker 2: I realized that wasn't doing anything. It was just so strong.
[20:30] Speaker 2: It wasn't doing anything. So I managed to twist myself
[20:32] Speaker 2: around and I managed to start getting the snout. But
[20:37] Speaker 2: as I was punching the snout, I missed and I
[20:40] Speaker 2: hit quite a few teeth. And I know this is
[20:43] Speaker 2: a podcast, but you can see I've got the scars
[20:45] Speaker 2: from hitting teeth on my hand and on my arms.
[20:47] Speaker 2: And that slashed open all of my tendons as I
[20:50] Speaker 2: was doing that. But I just kept punching on the
[20:52] Speaker 2: snout and hoping that I was hitting something. And it's
[20:58] Speaker 2: hard to say how many times, but it was quite
[21:00] Speaker 2: a few punches. Eventually, it just let me go and
[21:03] Speaker 2: I popped back up.
[21:05] Speaker 1: Did you go for its eyes at any stage?
[21:07] Speaker 2: I was going for that. I was going for the
[21:09] Speaker 2: snout and the eyes, but I couldn't see. There was
[21:12] Speaker 2: so much blood in the water and I was twisting
[21:13] Speaker 2: myself around that I couldn't really see where I was hitting.
[21:15] Speaker 2: I was just hoping that I was getting the right spot.
[21:20] Speaker 2: I found out now by speaking to experts that if
[21:22] Speaker 2: you're attacked by a great white, their reflex is that
[21:25] Speaker 2: if you put up a fight, they will leave you
[21:27] Speaker 2: alone because they don't want to get injured themselves, which
[21:31] Speaker 2: seems crazy because they're an apex predator. But their instinct
[21:34] Speaker 2: is to leave for a little while, wait for you
[21:35] Speaker 2: to bleed out, and then come back.
[21:37] Speaker 1: Wow.
[21:38] Speaker 2: So hopefully no one has to use that information. But
[21:41] Speaker 2: if it does get you, please punch back.
[21:43] Speaker 1: And do they say where to hit it?
[21:46] Speaker 2: The snout and the eyes.
[21:47] Speaker 1: The front of it?
[21:50] Speaker 2: Yeah, just around there. The scary thing about a shark
[21:54] Speaker 2: is that it's pretty much all jaw or teeth. So
[21:57] Speaker 2: it's very hard to actually get to the snout because
[21:59] Speaker 2: you've got to go past the mouth.
[22:00] Speaker 1: Okay.
[22:02] Speaker 2: But yeah, they have a lot of nerve endings around
[22:04] Speaker 2: their snouts.
[22:05] Speaker 1: Did you have a Mick Fanning moment at any stage?
[22:08] Speaker 2: Yeah, that actually, thank you to Mick. That was a
[22:10] Speaker 2: big reason why I knew to hit it on the
[22:13] Speaker 2: snout because all those years ago, I'd seen him do
[22:16] Speaker 2: it and put in the back of my mind, oh, okay,
[22:18] Speaker 2: that's what you do if it attacks you.
[22:19] Speaker 1: Sort of fight back.
[22:20] Speaker 2: Fight back. For a great white, it works, but not
[22:23] Speaker 2: necessarily if it's a bull shark.
[22:25] Speaker 1: Oh, really?
[22:26] Speaker 2: They'll keep going.
[22:28] Speaker 1: They're much more aggressive.
[22:29] Speaker 2: They're much more aggressive and they're not put off. Great
[22:32] Speaker 2: whites are a lot more strategic and a bit smarter.
[22:34] Speaker 2: So they think, oh, I'll just leave her for a
[22:36] Speaker 2: few minutes and then come back.
[22:37] Speaker 1: Let her bleed out.
[22:38] Speaker 2: Let her bleed out. And after speaking to experts, the
[22:42] Speaker 2: way that I was bitten was actually how they would
[22:44] Speaker 2: attack a seal. So they go for the flippers and
[22:47] Speaker 2: the fins. And so it's gone from my leg and
[22:50] Speaker 2: my arm to put me off so that I can't swim.
[22:54] Speaker 2: So it did follow the pattern that sharks usually follow
[22:58] Speaker 2: when they attack. I popped back up and then thankfully
[23:02] Speaker 2: Charlie Vercoe was there about 20 meters away once I
[23:06] Speaker 2: popped back up.
[23:06] Speaker 1: And so how did the shark leave you alone? Like
[23:10] Speaker 1: what happened there?
[23:11] Speaker 2: Yeah. So it let go of my leg.
[23:16] Speaker 1: That's after you whacked it?
[23:18] Speaker 2: After it whacked me, it was shaking me quite ferociously,
[23:22] Speaker 2: just shaking, shaking, shaking. Once I got potentially a really
[23:28] Speaker 2: good hit in, it just let go. And it retreated.
[23:32] Speaker 2: I didn't have eyes on it once I popped back up.
[23:36] Speaker 2: But I've been told by other people that it was
[23:38] Speaker 2: lurking around within a 30-meter vicinity. But I didn't have
[23:43] Speaker 2: eyes on it once I popped back up. But I
[23:46] Speaker 2: could sense that it was still there.
[23:47] Speaker 1: And along came Charlie.
[23:49] Speaker 2: Thank goodness.
[23:50] Speaker 1: And did he put you on the board or what happened?
[23:52] Speaker 2: Well, Charlie was about 30 to 50 meters away. And
[23:56] Speaker 2: amazing that he managed to stay in watching that happen.
[24:00] Speaker 2: I popped back up and again, I was screaming for help.
[24:04] Speaker 2: I was starting to feel really faint because I'd lost
[24:07] Speaker 2: so much blood. And Charlie was there and he said,
[24:11] Speaker 2: can you just swim a little bit to me? Because
[24:13] Speaker 2: obviously he didn't want to come straight into where the
[24:15] Speaker 2: shark was. He couldn't see it. So I swam about
[24:19] Speaker 2: five to 10 meters.
[24:20] Speaker 1: One arm, I guess.
[24:22] Speaker 2: One arm. My leg was dangling. Yeah. Yeah. Managed to
[24:28] Speaker 2: swim about 5, 10 meters to him. He came most
[24:30] Speaker 2: of the way to me. He wasn't able to get
[24:33] Speaker 2: me onto the board, so he asked me to hang
[24:36] Speaker 2: on to the board.
[24:36] Speaker 1: Yeah, he told me that I should hang on to
[24:38] Speaker 1: the board.
[24:39] Speaker 2: Yeah, but he didn't know my injuries. And I'd severed
[24:42] Speaker 2: all my tendons in my right hand as well, so
[24:44] Speaker 2: I couldn't physically grasp onto it. And I just have
[24:47] Speaker 2: the clearest memory of trying to hold on to the board,
[24:50] Speaker 2: but my fingers weren't working and I just kept slipping off,
[24:52] Speaker 2: slipping off, slipping off. It was so frustrating because at
[24:56] Speaker 2: the same time, I'm thinking any second this shark's coming
[24:58] Speaker 2: back to take a leg.
[24:59] Speaker 1: Totally.
[25:01] Speaker 2: And I'm like, please, just work my hands. Thankfully, Charlie noticed.
[25:06] Speaker 2: And he then repositioned me to hold on to the
[25:09] Speaker 2: drink bottle cage. And I was able to wrap my
[25:11] Speaker 2: arm around that and hold on for a while. But
[25:14] Speaker 2: then I started to lose consciousness and just started slipping
[25:17] Speaker 2: off the board. And he managed to turn the board around.
[25:21] Speaker 2: hold me with one of his arms and paddle with
[25:24] Speaker 2: the other arm and bring me back to safety.
[25:28] Speaker 1: Wow.
[25:29] Speaker 2: Incredible.
[25:30] Speaker 1: Do you ever think some other greater power that someone
[25:33] Speaker 1: like Charlie was in the water at the time? Yeah.
[25:35] Speaker 2: And the bravery it would have taken to do that.
[25:39] Speaker 2: And then also the world champion paddle boarder. I know
[25:43] Speaker 2: how lucky and how fortunate I am. I was also
[25:46] Speaker 2: really fortunate. They had a pre-medical trauma specialist on the beach.
[25:51] Speaker 1: Wow.
[25:53] Speaker 2: He is an absolute expert. And he was able to
[25:56] Speaker 2: call the helicopter directly because he had their number. He
[25:59] Speaker 2: works in the care flight helicopters. Got them to bring
[26:03] Speaker 2: blood to the beach within six minutes. And he gave
[26:06] Speaker 2: me an intraosseal blood transfusion through my collarbone. What? To
[26:12] Speaker 2: give me blood on the beach.
[26:13] Speaker 1: What the hell?
[26:14] Speaker 2: I know. And he would just happen to be there. What?
[26:17] Speaker 2: I know.
[26:18] Speaker 1: That's mad.
[26:19] Speaker 2: It is absolutely incredible. He is an incredible human. And
[26:22] Speaker 2: he's very humble as well. I've spoken to him. He says, oh,
[26:26] Speaker 2: I'm just doing what anyone would do. I'm like, no,
[26:29] Speaker 2: you're incredible. If he didn't do that, I would have
[26:32] Speaker 2: had severe brain damage or bled to death.
[26:34] Speaker 1: Recently there was, as you know, there was an event
[26:37] Speaker 1: to sort of honor our first responders, like the lifesavers
[26:40] Speaker 1: in this case. And people underestimate how important they are
[26:43] Speaker 1: to us in this country, particularly in this country where,
[26:46] Speaker 1: you know, sharks have become more often seen. Have you
[26:50] Speaker 1: thought about that, how important our life-saving community is to
[26:53] Speaker 1: us here in Australia?
[26:54] Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely. The beach and the water is such a
[26:57] Speaker 2: huge part of our culture. And we have a lot
[27:01] Speaker 2: of people that come to the water with different levels
[27:04] Speaker 2: of experience. But also, in my regard, it doesn't matter
[27:07] Speaker 2: how much experience I had. That can happen. And if
[27:11] Speaker 2: it weren't for the lifeguards and the people on the beach,
[27:14] Speaker 2: I would be dead.
[27:15] Speaker 1: And the helicopter, did it land on the beach?
[27:17] Speaker 2: It landed on Coogee Oval.
[27:18] Speaker 1: Coogee Oval. Is that the Westpac care flight thing?
[27:22] Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm fairly sure. Wow. So if it weren't for
[27:26] Speaker 2: the first responders, I would not be here. And if
[27:30] Speaker 2: it wasn't for how quickly they worked, I would have
[27:33] Speaker 2: brain damage and it wouldn't be the same Lear. And
[27:37] Speaker 2: I'm so thankful that it is the same Lear. And
[27:40] Speaker 2: at the moment, I'm speaking with the premier about how
[27:44] Speaker 2: we can really tighten that first response because I know
[27:47] Speaker 2: how lucky I was that I had those people on
[27:50] Speaker 2: that day. But most shark attack victims, they die or
[27:55] Speaker 2: have brain damage because of lack of blood. So just
[27:57] Speaker 2: making sure that we can get blood and fluids to
[27:59] Speaker 2: the beach as soon as possible. Or also working with
[28:02] Speaker 2: the shark bite kit, which is basically... a man on
[28:08] Speaker 2: the mid-north coast saw his friend who was attacked by
[28:11] Speaker 2: a shark and they just used a dog leash as
[28:14] Speaker 2: a tourniquet. And he came up with the initiative that
[28:16] Speaker 2: making sure we have enough tourniquets on the beaches so
[28:19] Speaker 2: that it can be used if we ever need it.
[28:21] Speaker 2: So making sure that lifeguards or the kits are on
[28:23] Speaker 2: beaches so that they can be used if there is
[28:25] Speaker 2: a shark bite.
[28:26] Speaker 1: So the men's government is looking at sponsoring this sort
[28:29] Speaker 1: of stuff?
[28:29] Speaker 2: Yeah, and they've already put in place quite a few
[28:31] Speaker 2: initiatives to make sure that every beach around the Sydney
[28:34] Speaker 2: area have– the appropriate tourniquets and the right equipment. I've
[28:40] Speaker 2: also mentioned having the tourniquets in the lifesaver bags so
[28:43] Speaker 2: that they can just pull it out as quickly as
[28:45] Speaker 2: possible if needed.
[28:47] Speaker 1: What do small business owners actually need? They need someone
[28:50] Speaker 1: to turn to when they're stuck, people who understand what
[28:52] Speaker 1: they're going through and the tools that make running a
[28:55] Speaker 1: business a little easier and cheaper. That's what I put
[28:57] Speaker 1: together with Mentored. You can ask me questions on our
[29:00] Speaker 1: monthly Zoom calls. connect with hundreds of other business owners
[29:03] Speaker 1: in our community, access an extensive catalogue of resources, and
[29:07] Speaker 1: potentially save thousands of dollars from over 600 plus software
[29:10] Speaker 1: discounts we've brought together. Check it out at mentor.com.au. How
[29:15] Speaker 1: do you feel about sharks now? I mean, apart from
[29:18] Speaker 1: obviously you were, you know, respectful of them and fearful
[29:22] Speaker 1: of them, but what do you think about sharks being
[29:25] Speaker 1: able to get into our beaches?
[29:27] Speaker 2: Look, it's a hard one. And When you go into
[29:32] Speaker 2: the ocean, you know that there is an element of risk.
[29:37] Speaker 2: It does frighten me that we've seen an increase in
[29:40] Speaker 2: shark incidents in the last few years. And I would
[29:46] Speaker 2: hate for anyone to go through what I've gone through.
[29:48] Speaker 2: It was absolutely terrifying and horrific. But I also don't
[29:52] Speaker 2: want to fearmonger about all sharks because not all sharks
[29:55] Speaker 2: do this. And a lot of the time they can
[29:57] Speaker 2: just leave you alone. I don't particularly like the shark
[30:02] Speaker 2: that did this to me, but I don't necessarily have
[30:05] Speaker 2: a hatred towards all sharks. I just want to make
[30:07] Speaker 2: sure that humans can go into the water safely and
[30:12] Speaker 2: that we have the right procedures in place to try
[30:15] Speaker 2: and keep us safe.
[30:16] Speaker 1: Do you think that people like yourself and others should
[30:19] Speaker 1: not swim in these environments anymore? Or do you think
[30:21] Speaker 1: we should continue to do that?
[30:23] Speaker 2: I think it's about being educated on when you should swim.
[30:28] Speaker 2: I have heard that the coming summer that we have
[30:30] Speaker 2: an El Nino weather system, which can bring more bull
[30:34] Speaker 2: sharks closer. And after a lot of rain, you can
[30:38] Speaker 2: have bull sharks in the water near estuaries. So I
[30:41] Speaker 2: think people should be educated and know that they are
[30:43] Speaker 2: out there. I don't think you should stop going into
[30:47] Speaker 2: the water because of that risk. But I love that
[30:50] Speaker 2: we now have the drones that are there. On the
[30:52] Speaker 2: day I was attacked, there wasn't a drone. If there was,
[30:55] Speaker 2: it would have spotted the shark. So I would feel
[30:58] Speaker 2: a lot more comfortable swimming in Coogee today because after
[31:01] Speaker 2: my incident, now they have the drones. And hopefully the
[31:04] Speaker 2: government are working towards AI drones, which would take out
[31:08] Speaker 2: the user error and be able to spot the difference
[31:10] Speaker 2: between a wobby gong or a great white. I don't
[31:13] Speaker 2: think people should stop going into the water. That's part
[31:16] Speaker 2: of our culture and you can do it safely, but
[31:18] Speaker 2: we just need to make sure we've got the right
[31:22] Speaker 2: practices in place that we can do it safely. safely,
[31:25] Speaker 2: whether that's nets or drones going in at the right time.
[31:29] Speaker 1: I once remember talking to an actuary who they measure
[31:33] Speaker 1: risk all the time and he's a mathematician and he
[31:35] Speaker 1: said to me, Mark, in the assessment of risk, it's
[31:40] Speaker 1: not just the probability of the event occurring, even if
[31:44] Speaker 1: that's just like one in a hundred chances of a
[31:47] Speaker 1: shark being there when you're swimming. He said to me,
[31:50] Speaker 1: you've also got to multiply that probability by the gravity
[31:54] Speaker 1: of the event occurring.
[31:56] Speaker 2: I would tend to agree with you now, and there
[31:59] Speaker 2: are certain beaches that I wouldn't have swum at, and
[32:02] Speaker 2: especially not at sunrise or sunset. But the difficult thing
[32:07] Speaker 2: for me was I was doing what they say is
[32:11] Speaker 2: everything right, the middle of the day, close to shore.
[32:14] Speaker 1: That goes to show you.
[32:16] Speaker 2: It wasn't murky. It wasn't raining. What I've been told
[32:22] Speaker 2: is it goes against what they have always said is
[32:24] Speaker 2: shark behavior. So it's really hard for me to wrestle
[32:30] Speaker 2: with that. And now that I know this, I quite
[32:33] Speaker 2: often see people out swimming in the water way further
[32:36] Speaker 2: than I was. And I do worry for them. But
[32:41] Speaker 2: I know we can't just cancel everything we're doing, but
[32:46] Speaker 2: we just need to make sure we put in the
[32:47] Speaker 2: right practices.
[32:48] Speaker 1: Yes.
[32:48] Speaker 2: That it is safe, but we do need to know
[32:50] Speaker 2: that there is an increase in sharks and shark incidents lately.
[32:55] Speaker 1: And I think like a podcast like this and someone
[32:58] Speaker 1: like you, for example, talking about these things, I think
[33:01] Speaker 1: it's important for those people to understand the risk. Because
[33:07] Speaker 1: a lot of times, I mean, maybe even you, you
[33:09] Speaker 1: probably never really thought about the risk. I mean, I've
[33:12] Speaker 1: done the Bondi, I've done the North Bondi, South Bondi event,
[33:15] Speaker 1: the Cold Classic a couple of times. And I never
[33:19] Speaker 1: thought about it because I've never heard of anyone being
[33:21] Speaker 1: attacked by a shark. But I think someone like you
[33:25] Speaker 1: speaking about these sorts of things, actually, we need to
[33:27] Speaker 1: have put it in front of people. People need to
[33:29] Speaker 1: be aware of that this stuff does happen now.
[33:31] Speaker 2: Yes.
[33:32] Speaker 1: And more often.
[33:33] Speaker 2: Yeah. Unfortunately, in the last three years, we've had quite
[33:38] Speaker 2: a few people be attacked in Sydney. Some of them
[33:41] Speaker 2: have lost their lives. Some of them have survived. and
[33:46] Speaker 2: I think people do need to be aware. And, for example,
[33:52] Speaker 2: I wouldn't be jumping into Sydney Harbour over summer or
[33:56] Speaker 2: murky water, that kind of thing. After it rains, I'd
[33:58] Speaker 2: be really careful about going in. I don't know if
[34:03] Speaker 2: my situation was just a completely random and won't happen again.
[34:10] Speaker 1: Total bad luck.
[34:11] Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know.
[34:12] Speaker 1: Do you mind if I just ask you what are
[34:13] Speaker 1: the extent of your injuries?
[34:15] Speaker 2: Yes. So my arm is amputated below the elbow and
[34:20] Speaker 2: then my leg was a 30 centimeter by 40 centimeter
[34:26] Speaker 2: wound with quite- Like a bite. A bite. If you've
[34:29] Speaker 2: ever seen a surfboard that has a bite out of it,
[34:31] Speaker 2: that's what my leg looked like.
[34:33] Speaker 1: Did the flesh missing?
[34:36] Speaker 2: Yes.
[34:36] Speaker 1: Muscle missing?
[34:37] Speaker 2: Yeah. So I lost my outer quad and my outer hamstring.
[34:42] Speaker 2: The original wound went behind my bones. So when they
[34:45] Speaker 2: pulled me out of the water, my bone was exposed. Thankfully,
[34:50] Speaker 2: I have amazing doctors at St. Vincent's and they used
[34:54] Speaker 2: a new technology to close my leg. It's called a
[34:58] Speaker 2: derma close and basically it's little hooks they put on
[35:01] Speaker 2: either side of your skin and like a self-winding mechanism
[35:04] Speaker 2: like a Swiss watch and it slowly pulls your own
[35:07] Speaker 2: skin together. They never used that on a circular wound
[35:11] Speaker 2: but they thought, oh, let's give this a go. It
[35:13] Speaker 2: usually works on a straight line sort of thing. It
[35:16] Speaker 2: pulled my leg in probably 60 to 70%. Um, so now, um,
[35:23] Speaker 2: my leg, it is actually almost healed. I've got a
[35:27] Speaker 2: huge sort of deviate in my leg and I've lost
[35:29] Speaker 2: the outer muscle and the quad muscle. Um, but my
[35:32] Speaker 2: own skin was pulled in to cover it. And then, um,
[35:36] Speaker 2: now my own skin's doing the job to sort of cover.
[35:39] Speaker 1: You can function okay with the legs?
[35:41] Speaker 2: I can. Um, but I can't walk as much as
[35:46] Speaker 2: I used to. My leg gets pretty sore. My knee
[35:48] Speaker 2: sort of pops in and out of place kind of thing,
[35:52] Speaker 2: and I sometimes lose balance. But with a lot of
[35:55] Speaker 2: effort and physio, I think that I can improve it
[35:58] Speaker 2: to be almost back to normal doing most tasks. Potentially
[36:03] Speaker 2: running will be quite difficult or skiing or that kind
[36:06] Speaker 2: of thing. I do have a bit of pain associated
[36:09] Speaker 2: with it, but I can function pretty well.
[36:12] Speaker 1: And your arm? Can you still feel your hand? I'm
[36:16] Speaker 1: serious because I've never heard that said.
[36:17] Speaker 2: Yes. I can still feel my hand. I can still
[36:20] Speaker 2: feel exactly where my fingers are and I can imagine
[36:22] Speaker 2: moving my fingers and I can feel what that sensation is.
[36:26] Speaker 2: I'm thankful that the phantom pain isn't too bad. At
[36:29] Speaker 2: the beginning, it was horrible. It was like I was
[36:31] Speaker 2: constantly being electrocuted or stabbed. That was the feeling of
[36:35] Speaker 2: the phantom pain. That's gone now. And now that I'm
[36:39] Speaker 2: working towards a prosthetic, it's good to hold on to
[36:42] Speaker 2: that feeling of your hand. because that's how you control
[36:45] Speaker 2: the myoelectric prosthetic, where I can have the prosthetic that
[36:50] Speaker 2: moves for me. I've got to imagine sort of moving
[36:53] Speaker 2: my thumb and the nerve ending will twitch and then
[36:56] Speaker 2: that controls the prosthetic.
[36:57] Speaker 1: And how are you in terms of your mental health?
[37:01] Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely. I have had a lot of really bad
[37:06] Speaker 2: days and I've had days where I just cry all
[37:09] Speaker 2: day and feel sorry for myself. But now I'm at
[37:13] Speaker 2: a point where I have more good days than bad days.
[37:16] Speaker 2: And a big turning point for me was coming home
[37:18] Speaker 2: from hospital. I was in hospital for two months. Wow. Yeah.
[37:23] Speaker 2: And in the grand scheme of things, it's not that long,
[37:26] Speaker 2: but when you're in it, it feels like forever. I'm
[37:29] Speaker 2: home now and I'm with my daughter and I'm doing
[37:32] Speaker 2: more and more things. So I'm feeling a lot more
[37:35] Speaker 2: optimistic and positive about it. I still have a few
[37:38] Speaker 2: triggers that If I see it or feel it, I'm
[37:42] Speaker 2: right back in the ocean re-experiencing it. I have PTSD,
[37:47] Speaker 2: but I'm working with a therapist at the moment and
[37:51] Speaker 2: doing EMDR.
[37:52] Speaker 1: What's that?
[37:53] Speaker 2: So it's about you recall the experience and then they
[37:57] Speaker 2: move something. So for me, it's just a pen and
[37:59] Speaker 2: I follow it with my eyes. The pen, this sounds
[38:03] Speaker 2: very basic, but it's worked very well for me. And
[38:06] Speaker 2: then basically the idea is that you– take the memory
[38:10] Speaker 2: that is very real and traumatic and it moves it
[38:12] Speaker 2: to a part of your brain that is a long-term
[38:14] Speaker 2: memory so that now I can recall the event and
[38:18] Speaker 2: it doesn't feel like I'm going to die because that's
[38:20] Speaker 2: the feeling I would have when I would think about
[38:22] Speaker 2: it and sit about sit in it I felt like
[38:25] Speaker 2: I was going to die and I had the same
[38:26] Speaker 2: panic that I had in the water but now after
[38:29] Speaker 2: doing EMDR I can now recall the event and it
[38:32] Speaker 2: just feels like I'm recalling a story a story or
[38:36] Speaker 2: like Christmas lunch when I was 10, it's just like, okay,
[38:39] Speaker 2: that happened, but I don't have the trauma associated with it.
[38:42] Speaker 2: And I was apprehensive at the first, but then I
[38:45] Speaker 2: tried it and it's worked really well for me.
[38:47] Speaker 1: I'd imagine you can have a nightmare about this.
[38:50] Speaker 2: Yes.
[38:50] Speaker 1: Like wake up in the middle of the night, like
[38:53] Speaker 1: thinking about it or dreaming about it.
[38:54] Speaker 2: Yeah. So that is the area that I've struggled with
[38:58] Speaker 2: the most actually is my sleep. And a lot of
[39:01] Speaker 2: people that have trauma and PTSD, sleep becomes a real issue.
[39:06] Speaker 2: Every night I wake up at about 4 a.m. and
[39:08] Speaker 2: I'm wide awake. I think that I've been dreaming about it,
[39:13] Speaker 2: but I can't recall the dream. But I just wake
[39:16] Speaker 2: up with a fright and I've been sweating and then
[39:19] Speaker 2: I can't get back to sleep from 4 a.m.
[39:21] Speaker 1: Well, you can ring me anytime you like because I'm
[39:22] Speaker 1: awake 3 a.m. every day. So I haven't been for
[39:24] Speaker 1: the last 25 years.
[39:25] Speaker 2: Oh, fabulous.
[39:26] Speaker 1: Thinking about work. Yeah, good. We can have a chat.
[39:28] Speaker 1: I say, how are you feeling? Because I'm always looking
[39:31] Speaker 1: for someone to talk to at that time. I mean,
[39:32] Speaker 1: I usually turn the telly on to something stupid. But like, yeah,
[39:36] Speaker 1: and mine's not PTSD. Maybe it is. I don't know
[39:39] Speaker 1: about it. But mine's business related. But I'm always thinking
[39:41] Speaker 1: about stuff. And I get, well, you're only young, too.
[39:45] Speaker 1: You don't want to have to have that lack of
[39:47] Speaker 1: sleep during this period, particularly when you're trying to physically
[39:50] Speaker 1: recover from stuff as well.
[39:51] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[39:52] Speaker 1: Because you need your sleep.
[39:53] Speaker 2: Oh, definitely. It's slowly getting better. But I guess for
[39:59] Speaker 2: anyone that does have this situation, you just try not
[40:02] Speaker 2: to think about it too much because if you dwell on, oh,
[40:04] Speaker 2: I'm awake, I'm awake, it makes it worse. So I
[40:07] Speaker 2: think maybe when I'm up at 4 a.m., I need
[40:09] Speaker 2: to be like you and start doing something.
[40:11] Speaker 1: Do something.
[40:12] Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. Luckily, well, not luckily, but before this, I
[40:16] Speaker 2: was up with my daughter every two, three hours. So
[40:19] Speaker 2: I was already used to lack of sleep. So it
[40:21] Speaker 2: wasn't anything.
[40:22] Speaker 1: What about school? Will you go back to school? Teaching,
[40:24] Speaker 1: that is.
[40:26] Speaker 2: I love teaching. At the moment, it's physically and emotionally
[40:31] Speaker 2: quite hard, but it's definitely something I would love to
[40:34] Speaker 2: get back to. I'm not sure in what capacity, but
[40:38] Speaker 2: as a teacher, that's something that's always with you. So
[40:40] Speaker 2: I would even love to use my experience to help
[40:45] Speaker 2: kids to be able to get over some hard things,
[40:48] Speaker 2: to help with resilience or whatever that might look like.
[40:51] Speaker 2: In regards to back in the classroom, I'd love to
[40:53] Speaker 2: be able to get to that point. But just with
[40:55] Speaker 2: energy levels and the physical demands of it at the moment,
[40:59] Speaker 2: it's quite difficult.
[41:00] Speaker 1: What's a prognosis for someone who's suffered, like the physical
[41:04] Speaker 1: prognosis and the, let's call it the mental PTSD prognosis.
[41:08] Speaker 1: What do they say? Like you need a year.
[41:11] Speaker 2: They never give you a timeframe. I'm always asking, how
[41:14] Speaker 2: long will this be? No one wants to tell you.
[41:15] Speaker 1: They probably don't want to commit.
[41:17] Speaker 2: But I'm healing a lot quicker than anyone expected.
[41:21] Speaker 1: I think you're four months. This is amazing.
[41:24] Speaker 2: Yeah. So in regards to mental and physical, everyone's been
[41:31] Speaker 2: quite shocked, I guess, that I've bounced back as quickly
[41:35] Speaker 2: as I have. Yeah. They can't put a timeframe on it,
[41:41] Speaker 2: but if I continue with how I'm going, hopefully I'll
[41:44] Speaker 2: be back to the regular Leah, walking around, doing walks,
[41:49] Speaker 2: doing swims in the pool, maybe in the next six months.
[41:54] Speaker 1: You taught at a school in Hurstville?
[41:56] Speaker 2: Yes.
[41:57] Speaker 1: Have the kids reached out to you?
[41:59] Speaker 2: Yeah, I actually went back to visit them.
[42:00] Speaker 1: Oh, nice.
[42:01] Speaker 2: And I was putting it off because I thought that
[42:03] Speaker 2: they would be scared and It's a hard thing to
[42:07] Speaker 2: talk about and I didn't want them to be traumatized
[42:09] Speaker 2: by seeing me.
[42:09] Speaker 1: They're little kids, I guess.
[42:10] Speaker 2: Little kids, primary school.
[42:12] Speaker 1: Wow.
[42:13] Speaker 2: And I went back and they were amazing. They were
[42:16] Speaker 2: just so excited to see me and they had the
[42:20] Speaker 2: most inappropriate questions.
[42:22] Speaker 1: There's no filter.
[42:24] Speaker 2: Yeah, no filter. But, you know, that prepares me for–
[42:27] Speaker 2: you know, future interviews I do, they just threw out
[42:29] Speaker 2: the worst possible.
[42:30] Speaker 1: By the way, I've been trying to make sure I filter,
[42:31] Speaker 1: but I'm usually no filter, but I've been trying my
[42:33] Speaker 1: best to be filtering.
[42:35] Speaker 2: I'm a very open person, so it's fine. But it
[42:38] Speaker 2: was just really good to see them. And like, instead
[42:40] Speaker 2: of them being worried or scared, they were just curious.
[42:43] Speaker 2: And I think it's good for kids to speak to
[42:47] Speaker 2: someone that might have a difference or a disability and
[42:51] Speaker 2: to not hide away from that. And like, it was
[42:53] Speaker 2: good for them to get those questions out. And to
[42:56] Speaker 2: see that I'm still the same person and it was
[43:00] Speaker 2: healing for me as well.
[43:02] Speaker 1: It's good for you. I was going to say it's
[43:03] Speaker 1: probably really good for you too.
[43:04] Speaker 2: Yeah, it was.
[43:05] Speaker 1: What would you say? I mean, a lot of people
[43:07] Speaker 1: listening to this show, particularly this episode, I can imagine,
[43:13] Speaker 1: probably consider themselves in a traumatic situation. It could be work,
[43:18] Speaker 1: it could be family, it could be any number of things.
[43:20] Speaker 1: What do you say are some of the basic tenets that,
[43:24] Speaker 1: you need to establish before these things happen in your life?
[43:28] Speaker 1: You need to establish like maybe family, friends, community, whatever
[43:31] Speaker 1: it is. What are the basic tenets do you think
[43:33] Speaker 1: that actually have helped you get through this?
[43:38] Speaker 2: I guess the first one would be the community. I
[43:44] Speaker 2: felt like I was the most supported person in Australia
[43:47] Speaker 2: at one point, and not everyone's going to have access
[43:49] Speaker 2: to that. But when you have those really dark days–
[43:53] Speaker 2: having someone that can check in on you or help
[43:58] Speaker 2: you with different things. I had a mother's group that
[44:00] Speaker 2: was cooking me meals every single day and bringing it
[44:03] Speaker 2: to the hospital.
[44:04] Speaker 1: Did you know them before?
[44:05] Speaker 2: I did.
[44:06] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[44:07] Speaker 2: They all had babies born in January, the same time
[44:10] Speaker 2: as August. They made a spreadsheet of when they could
[44:14] Speaker 2: come and babysit, when they could take her on a
[44:16] Speaker 2: play date, when they could provide meals. And on your
[44:19] Speaker 2: darkest days, just having a community and also being able
[44:22] Speaker 2: to ask for help Which is something that I.
[44:24] Speaker 1: You being out to ask for help.
[44:25] Speaker 2: Me being out to ask for help.
[44:26] Speaker 1: Is that something normal for you?
[44:28] Speaker 2: No.
[44:28] Speaker 1: Yeah, because you're the helper.
[44:30] Speaker 2: Yes. And you just had to relinquish control and say, yeah,
[44:37] Speaker 2: I do actually need help. And people love to help.
[44:41] Speaker 2: If I just pushed everyone away and said, I'm fine,
[44:43] Speaker 2: I don't think I would have.
[44:46] Speaker 1: They don't admire you anymore for doing that. They do
[44:50] Speaker 1: not admire you anymore for doing that. No.
[44:53] Speaker 2: And... And like if I was just a regular person
[44:55] Speaker 2: now thinking back when I had August and was a
[44:57] Speaker 2: new mum, I was doing everything on my own, but
[45:00] Speaker 2: I wish I'd actually accessed the community and asked for
[45:03] Speaker 2: help when I needed it.
[45:05] Speaker 1: So have a community. Be prepared to ask for help
[45:09] Speaker 1: when you need it.
[45:09] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[45:11] Speaker 1: Sort of a little bit like get over yourself a bit.
[45:13] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[45:14] Speaker 1: Like, you know, I'm not too tough. I can ask
[45:16] Speaker 1: for help.
[45:17] Speaker 2: And then also I think having faith in yourself and
[45:21] Speaker 2: backing yourself is that you can do really hard things.
[45:26] Speaker 2: I never would have thought that I could have gotten
[45:28] Speaker 2: through this and I've surprised myself how I've mentally and
[45:33] Speaker 2: physically gotten through this. But sometimes you just need to
[45:38] Speaker 2: back yourself. Like there are really hard things, but you're
[45:42] Speaker 2: stronger than you think.
[45:43] Speaker 1: That's amazing too. You know, you are stronger than you think.
[45:46] Speaker 1: The fact that you had the wherewithal when the shark
[45:49] Speaker 1: had grabbed hold of your leg and was pushing you
[45:51] Speaker 1: into the sand. to somehow twist your body around and
[45:55] Speaker 1: start attacking its snout. If someone had said to you
[46:01] Speaker 1: three hours before this event, hey, do you reckon you
[46:03] Speaker 1: could do this? You'd be thinking, come on, that's impossible. Yeah.
[46:06] Speaker 2: But you've done it. And even as I was doing it,
[46:08] Speaker 2: I thought it was impossible.
[46:10] Speaker 1: But what is it that gets someone like you to
[46:12] Speaker 1: back yourself? Where does that come from? Did your parents
[46:20] Speaker 1: always say, you can do anything you want, you know,
[46:22] Speaker 1: like no matter what you try, you'll be good at it,
[46:24] Speaker 1: go for it?
[46:24] Speaker 2: No. My parents were always trying to rein me in.
[46:28] Speaker 1: Yeah, stop. Yeah. Be careful, be careful.
[46:30] Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I've always been someone that's just like,
[46:33] Speaker 2: let's go, let's get it done. I'm an impatient person
[46:36] Speaker 2: with myself. I don't know where that came from. My
[46:40] Speaker 2: parents were sometimes saying, slow down, Leah, like maybe don't
[46:43] Speaker 2: jump into that. So I think it's just something I had.
[46:48] Speaker 1: I don't know.
[46:49] Speaker 2: What it was exactly, exactly. Um, but I think all
[46:54] Speaker 2: of us, when you're put into a situation where it's
[46:58] Speaker 2: life and death, I think we actually do have something
[47:00] Speaker 2: instinctually that is really strong. Um, even the fact that
[47:05] Speaker 2: when I was under the water, I punched the shark
[47:07] Speaker 2: so hard that I broke my finger.
[47:09] Speaker 1: Wow.
[47:09] Speaker 2: That was the adrenaline and it's just that fight to survive.
[47:13] Speaker 2: And I think we all do have that. Um, And
[47:16] Speaker 2: hopefully you're not put in a situation where you have
[47:18] Speaker 2: to use it, but there is something that you can
[47:20] Speaker 2: unlock within yourself that you might not know is there.
[47:23] Speaker 1: Where to from here? Yeah. I mean, you got enough
[47:28] Speaker 1: money because, I mean, these things are expensive to fix.
[47:30] Speaker 1: I mean, I saw that you raised some money, but
[47:33] Speaker 1: you actually told them to stop donating.
[47:35] Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, I just felt so supported by the community
[47:39] Speaker 2: and I was absolutely shocked when I just saw that
[47:43] Speaker 2: people had really cared enough about me and my family. Um,
[47:47] Speaker 2: we had the GoFundMe and everyone was just so supportive. Um,
[47:51] Speaker 2: with this sort of thing, you have time off work,
[47:53] Speaker 2: you have upcoming expenses for rehabilitation.
[47:55] Speaker 1: I can imagine.
[47:56] Speaker 2: Um, but it got to the point where I thought,
[48:00] Speaker 2: you know what, like, I think this is sufficient enough.
[48:02] Speaker 2: And I was mindful that there are other people out
[48:05] Speaker 2: there that are going through really difficult times too. So, um, Yeah,
[48:10] Speaker 2: with that, I was very thankful. And then moving forward,
[48:14] Speaker 2: like I said, I want to give back. So I'm
[48:16] Speaker 2: currently working with the St. Vincent's Curran Foundation. Oh, wow.
[48:19] Speaker 1: That's great.
[48:19] Speaker 2: And I'm volunteering to raise money for the ICU to
[48:22] Speaker 2: buy equipment because with St. Vincent's, it's half private, half public.
[48:25] Speaker 2: So a lot of it is actually privately funded.
[48:27] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[48:28] Speaker 2: So I'm working with them to help raise funds because
[48:30] Speaker 2: the ICU team did an incredible job with me.
[48:33] Speaker 1: This is the intensive care unit?
[48:34] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[48:35] Speaker 1: In the public hospital?
[48:36] Speaker 2: Yeah, at St. Vincent's.
[48:39] Speaker 1: What people don't realize, but I didn't realize anyway, is
[48:41] Speaker 1: that there is a specialist in every discipline at St. Vincent's.
[48:45] Speaker 1: It doesn't matter whether it's, in your case, trauma or
[48:49] Speaker 1: mental health or you need a kidney person or you
[48:52] Speaker 1: need a heart person. There's one on call or one
[48:56] Speaker 1: at the hospital at 24 hours a day. Yes. Everything
[49:00] Speaker 1: is covered in the public hospital I'm talking about. It's
[49:02] Speaker 1: quite amazing.
[49:04] Speaker 2: Oh, they're amazing. Yes. the people that were on call
[49:08] Speaker 2: when I arrived were absolute experts in the field and
[49:14] Speaker 2: I was still very close to death when I arrived
[49:17] Speaker 2: but because of their expertise they kept me alive.
[49:19] Speaker 1: Do you remember any of these things?
[49:22] Speaker 2: I remember the hospital lights.
[49:26] Speaker 1: Like in the operating area?
[49:28] Speaker 2: No, that becomes hazy then. They'd pumped me with a
[49:31] Speaker 2: lot of ketamine by that time. For the pain? For
[49:34] Speaker 2: the pain. And that's erased that memory. But I've been
[49:39] Speaker 2: told that when I arrived, I was asking for my mum,
[49:43] Speaker 2: which is actually what a lot of people do when
[49:45] Speaker 2: they're near to death. They actually ask for their mum,
[49:48] Speaker 2: which is really interesting. But I remember a bit of
[49:55] Speaker 2: the lights, but that's about it.
[49:57] Speaker 1: The care after, once you came to, the care in
[50:01] Speaker 1: the hospital would have been amazing.
[50:04] Speaker 2: Oh, they are so beautiful.
[50:06] Speaker 1: They're like angels.
[50:08] Speaker 2: Honestly. And even though I don't miss the hospital at all,
[50:11] Speaker 2: I actually miss the staff.
[50:12] Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
[50:13] Speaker 2: I still keep in contact with quite a few of them,
[50:16] Speaker 2: the nurses, the surgeons. My orthopedic surgeon gave me a
[50:20] Speaker 2: call last week and he's coming to an event that
[50:25] Speaker 2: I'm going to just to check in with me. When
[50:29] Speaker 2: I was in ICU, I don't think they do this
[50:30] Speaker 2: for many people, but they actually kept a diary for me,
[50:33] Speaker 2: the nurses. Oh, wow. And what they wrote was a
[50:36] Speaker 2: lot of people wake up from a coma and they're
[50:39] Speaker 2: confused about the time they've lost or worried about the
[50:42] Speaker 2: time they've lost. So they kept a diary every day
[50:45] Speaker 2: about what was happening and what they were doing to
[50:47] Speaker 2: care for me. And just, they didn't have to do that,
[50:50] Speaker 2: but they just did that because they cared. And I
[50:54] Speaker 2: had a lot of experiences with that. The nurses, I
[50:58] Speaker 2: was really traumatized. And they had the right words to
[51:03] Speaker 2: say at that time and they went above and beyond
[51:05] Speaker 2: with their job. Um, yeah, incredible staff at St. Vincent's
[51:10] Speaker 2: and I'm sure a lot of the hospitals.
[51:12] Speaker 1: When I was there last week, it's funny. I, um,
[51:14] Speaker 1: there was one nurse looking after my friend. Uh, she
[51:17] Speaker 1: was a young woman and she's walking around humming like tunes,
[51:22] Speaker 1: like all the time, the whole time, literally the whole
[51:24] Speaker 1: time she's trying to help him out. And, um, we're
[51:27] Speaker 1: in the emergency ward and, uh, And I said to her,
[51:29] Speaker 1: I said, what are you humming? She said, I don't know.
[51:31] Speaker 1: She said, I just like to hum. And she was
[51:33] Speaker 1: so pleasant. It's bloody amazing. And I said to my friend,
[51:37] Speaker 1: as far as I'm concerned, first responders in this country,
[51:44] Speaker 1: the federal government, the prime minister should say something like,
[51:48] Speaker 1: whatever the tax rate is for everybody else, you've got
[51:49] Speaker 1: to pay half.
[51:50] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[51:51] Speaker 1: Because they don't get paid enough money in the first place.
[51:54] Speaker 1: They do it because they're just meant to do it.
[51:56] Speaker 1: They're so good at it.
[51:57] Speaker 2: Yes.
[51:59] Speaker 1: We should be saying to them as Australians, we're happy
[52:01] Speaker 1: to pay a bit more tax so you don't have
[52:03] Speaker 1: to pay as much tax.
[52:04] Speaker 2: Absolutely. I've actually thought about that before too. Cancel stamp
[52:07] Speaker 2: duty for them.
[52:08] Speaker 1: Yeah, you should get some benefit as a first responder.
[52:12] Speaker 1: The dude on the beach, the lifeguards, the people at
[52:17] Speaker 1: the hospital, the ambulance guys are coming to get you,
[52:19] Speaker 1: the helicopter person who's looking after you, the police. They're
[52:24] Speaker 1: amazing people and we need to– have more gratitude, actual gratitude,
[52:31] Speaker 1: like money, gratitude for them. Not just say, oh, thank you.
[52:34] Speaker 2: I know.
[52:36] Speaker 1: We as a community should give them more gratitude.
[52:38] Speaker 2: I know. Well, you're not actually allowed to give gifts
[52:41] Speaker 2: when you're in the hospital. I wanted to give them
[52:43] Speaker 2: all something, but you're not allowed. You're only allowed to
[52:45] Speaker 2: give them food. I'm like, oh, they deserve a lot
[52:48] Speaker 2: more than this. You're absolutely correct. Cut their taxes in half.
[52:52] Speaker 1: Totally. I mean, we are... You know, when I look
[52:55] Speaker 1: at all the events and all the people that got
[52:57] Speaker 1: involved in trying to help you out and you're sitting
[53:00] Speaker 1: here living proof of the system in Australia, the system
[53:02] Speaker 1: in Australia is pretty good. I'd say if you're in
[53:05] Speaker 1: another country, it may not have turned out quite as well.
[53:10] Speaker 1: I mean, we complain a lot of stuff about Australia.
[53:12] Speaker 1: I've been doing a bit of it lately about various
[53:16] Speaker 1: things in the economy. But someone like you is very sobering.
[53:22] Speaker 1: Because we do actually live in the best country in
[53:25] Speaker 1: the world.
[53:26] Speaker 2: Absolutely.
[53:26] Speaker 1: We have all these scary things that happen like crocodiles
[53:28] Speaker 1: and sharks and snakes and what have you. But still,
[53:32] Speaker 1: we do live in the best country in the world.
[53:34] Speaker 1: We have the best system around us. And we shouldn't
[53:38] Speaker 1: lose sight of that. And you're living proof of it.
[53:41] Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely.
[53:42] Speaker 1: Living proof. And I underline that word, living proof.
[53:46] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[53:47] Speaker 1: Sitting here right in front of me.
[53:50] Speaker 2: And even, yeah. that and also the Aussie spirit of
[53:55] Speaker 2: Charlie just swam into a shark to pick me up. Um,
[53:59] Speaker 2: people ran up to pull me from the water, um,
[54:03] Speaker 2: holding up towels, not filming. Well, there were some people filming,
[54:07] Speaker 2: but like most people were standing there just wanting me
[54:09] Speaker 2: to get better and getting to the hospital and, um,
[54:14] Speaker 2: the Medicare system. If I was in America, I would be,
[54:17] Speaker 2: I don't know, millions of dollars a day. Um, I'm
[54:21] Speaker 2: very fortunate to have been in Australia and had the
[54:26] Speaker 2: outcome that I have, and I don't think it would
[54:28] Speaker 2: have happened in some other places.
[54:30] Speaker 1: Well, we are actually very fortunate for you to be
[54:32] Speaker 1: able to come and share your story. I'm serious. I
[54:34] Speaker 1: mean that. I'm very fortunate to have had the opportunity
[54:37] Speaker 1: to talk about it, and thank you for being so
[54:41] Speaker 1: honest and open about it because that's a pretty important
[54:43] Speaker 1: thing for people to get the whole story, not just
[54:47] Speaker 1: what they read in the newspaper or maybe a clip
[54:49] Speaker 1: on radio. But for someone like you to get up
[54:51] Speaker 1: here four months after the event to talk about it
[54:54] Speaker 1: so openly, honestly, but also it looks like you're– for me,
[54:59] Speaker 1: I get this feeling of beaming and gratitude. Absolutely. And
[55:03] Speaker 1: that's a great story in itself and really important for
[55:07] Speaker 1: people to understand. If Leah can show the gratitude that
[55:11] Speaker 1: she's showing in relation to what happened to her as
[55:14] Speaker 1: opposed to wallowing in it too much, then all of us,
[55:19] Speaker 1: can learn from that all of us we we can
[55:21] Speaker 1: actually pick something up from that and take it away
[55:23] Speaker 1: make our lives a bit better because in the end
[55:25] Speaker 1: of the day it's up to us would you agree
[55:28] Speaker 1: it's up to you it's up to what Leah decides
[55:31] Speaker 1: to do as to how she feels nobody else can
[55:33] Speaker 1: do that for you.
[55:34] Speaker 2: Yeah thank you for that yeah absolutely um it's an
[55:37] Speaker 2: active decision you can choose to focus on what's going
[55:39] Speaker 2: well or what's not not going well and every day
[55:42] Speaker 2: I'm choosing what's going well and it's working so far.
[55:46] Speaker 1: Leah Stewart thanks very much Thank you. That was amazing.
[55:49] Speaker 2: I really appreciate it.

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.