Police officers and rescue personnel raced to a beach in Florida when a young girl, who was nine years old at the time, was bitten by a shark. The footage from the police’ body cameras was recently made public.
In Boca Grande, which is located close to Fort Myers, the incident took place on Wednesday as Leah Lendel was swimming in the water.
As a result of the attack, Lendel’s hand was partially severed, and she required emergency surgery. She was transported to a hospital via helicopter.
Lendel was bitten, and rescue crews were shown on body camera footage ministering to her after rescue operations.
“Her health is improving. A brave young man, an officer remarked.
The mother of Lendel stated that she and her other children were snorkeling near the coast when she realized that her daughter had been injured after she emerged from the water. This was the first time that an officer had begun to speak with her.
“And then she flies out and like I look over, I don’t know if I heard a yell or what, but she went that and I see her hand hanging, like a piece and there’s blood everywhere,” the woman’s mother explained. “And I began yelling at my husband to hurry up and get out of the house because I had so many babies that I didn’t know who to grab,” she said. It’s a shark, that’s what I have understood.
After that, the officer had a conversation with three men who had witnessed the incident and provided assistance.
“We were just sitting down, taking lunch and we start hearing like, ‘Help,’ so we jumped out of the water, we jumped out of the chair, he jumped on the water to take the shark out of his hands,” according to one of the male participants.
Immediately prior to Lendel being transported by helicopter to a hospital in Tampa, the men wrapped her hand in towels.
“All you can see is just the hand, the arm, hanging on the arm, so we put a towel on it, took her to the front, I called 911.”
The men stated that the shark was approximately eight feet in length and was located close to the coast.
In the film captured by the officer’s body camera, the officer can be seen extending his hand to the men and expressing gratitude for their prompt action.
It was possible for the doctors to undertake emergency surgery in order to reattach the hand that had been partially severed.
“The doctors were able to perform some miracles and put her hand back together,” her uncle, Max Derinsky, said. “It was a miracle.” “She will be in the hospital for a while and then a lot of physical therapy to hopefully get her hand functioning again.”
