Mom influencer Nadia Lendel is asking for prayers after her 9-year-old daughter was bitten by a shark.
Leah Lendel almost lost her hand after she was attacked by an eight-foot bull shark in Boca Grande, Florida on Wednesday, June 11, while snorkeling off the shore with her mom and two younger siblings, according to reports.
She was immediately airlifted to the hospital to undergo emergency surgery to reattach her hand, and the procedure was reportedly successful.
“Update on Our sweet Leah,” Nadia wrote via her Instagram Story on Thursday, June 12. “Yesterday she had a very long surgery to save her hand (her wrist and fingers). Praise God Almighty for the Doctors, they were able to get blood flow to her entire hand and all of her fingers. They 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. So far she was able to move 2 of her fingers.”
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Nadia, a fashion blogger and mother of five, originally shared the news of the shark attack on Wednesday, writing via her Instagram Story, “Please keep our family in your prayers. Leah got bit by a shark today while snorkeling. She had to get airlifted to the hospital and is undergoing surgery.”
In a statement, the Lendel family shared that Nadia and her kids were snorkeling 100 miles south of Tampa when she heard Leah scream. She looked over and saw her daughter’s hand was “torn mostly off” and covered in blood. Leah eventually walked out of the water by herself, “most likely in a state of shock.”
Leah’s father was snorkeling nearby and swam as fast as possible to shore, and with the help of a group of construction workers who were on a lunch break at the time, they were able to make a tourniquet out of a towel and call 911, the family shared in the statement.
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“When we see that little girl come in, out from the water, with no hand … gets me,” a construction worker who helped Leah, Alfonso Tello, told NBC News’ WBBH. “Like, everybody was in shock.”
Leah’s uncle Max Derinsky also shared details of her recovery with NBC News, saying, “She will be in the hospital for a while and then a lot of physical therapy to hopefully get her hand functioning again.”
