An overwhelmed 9-year-old shark attack survivor said the attack happened so quickly that she hardly realized she had been bitten until she saw her blood-soaked hand emerge from the water.
Leah Lendel, who is still undergoing treatment, broke her silence on Thursday — more than a week after a family snorkeling trip in Florida turned horrifying.
“I didn’t see anything,” Leah said at a news conference at the Tampa General Hospital as she described the attack.
“I was just snorkeling and I went up to breathe, then something hard bit me and it tried to take me away.
“Then I pick up my hand and it’s all in blood.”
The little girl said she immediately started screaming out for help before her dad picked her up and ran.
While recounting the harrowing ordeal, Leah appeared to become overwhelmed and handed back the microphone.
“There was so much blood in the water right next to me,” Leah’s mom, Nadia Lendel, recalled.
“In an instant, I knew it’s a shark attack.”
The terrifying saga unfolded last week when the predator suddenly chomped down on Leah’s right hand while she was in the water near Boca Grande with her parents and siblings.
Bodycam footage from first responders captured medics crowding around the girl and reassuring her she was “very strong” and “brave” in the aftermath.
The youngster was airlifted to the hospital in Tampa where she underwent major surgery to save her limb.
Doctors stabilized the bones in her wrist before taking vessels from her leg to help with the blood flow.
“I’m just thankful for everybody,” her father, Jay Lendel, said. “I’m just very thankful she’s alive.”
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