By New York Post (World News) | Created at 2026-09-22 19:00:49 | Updated at 2026-09-22 19:40:53
46 minutes ago
Australian shark attack survivor Leah Stewart has shared a sad update on her recovery three and a half months after the terrifying incident.
The mother of one, who lost an arm while swimming close to shore and between the flags at the popular beach on June 13, revealed her skin graft has failed.
In a post shared to her Instagram on Tuesday morning, Stewart said she had her graft checked, and it was “not the update I was hoping for.”
“Unfortunately this is not the post I was wanting to do but I had my graft checked yesterday and it was confirmed that it failed,” Stewart said.
“So, I am feeling pretty devastated had quite a few tears and now we’re not really sure where to go from here.”
Stewart said it’s been three and a half months and her leg is “still open.”
“I guess the only good thing is we’re trying something different, so I’m having a little break from the vac machine which means I can move a little bit more freely.”
The medical device, called Vacuum-Assisted Closure (VAC), is used to securely hold a new skin graft in place and help it heal.
It creates suction, pulling the wound together and removing fluid.
In the clip, Stewart proceeded to show viewers what her leg looks like for the first time.
“I guess a lot of you wouldn’t know what a skin graft looks like so I’ll actually show you,” she said as she stood back, away from the camera.
“I haven’t shown my legs yet so I’m a little nervous about this.
“Here is where they took the skin from my right leg,” she said while pointing to the top of her thigh.
“It’s still pretty raw but thankfully it’s healing. And they put it on my left leg but unfortunately it didn’t work.
“Anyway we keep moving forward.”
This is the 34-year-old’s second skin graft attempt.
Earlier this month, the Sydney mother recounted her harrowing story of survival on Australia’s version of ’60 Minutes’, detailing the moment she came face-to-face with a shark moments before it severed her arm and left her fighting for life on Coogee Beach in June.
“In my head, I was like, ‘You ugly f–ker, you are not taking me away from my daughter,’” Stewart told the current affairs program.
“I twisted myself around and I just started punching it over and over and over again … I think I must have got a really good one in. And so it let me go.”
Following the interview, Stewart copped flak, with some people accusing her of making up parts of the story they claim she simply couldn’t have remembered – including former AFL player and current radio host Brendan Fevola.
Fevola implied Stewart was playing up her account of being attacked by the shark and repeatedly punching it away.
“She’s missing a limb, like her forearm is gone … if a shark was attacking you, you wouldn’t have much time to think I wouldn’t have thought,” Fevola said on radio.
“I was on the couch with my wife Alex and my kids going, ‘She’s lying. Too much time to think. You’re not thinking all that, are you?’
“We don’t know but,” he went on to say. “This tough girl punched the shark.”
Shark expert Joel Nancarrow, also known as Hunter Shark Jaw Restoration by his social media followers, issued a blunt message to Stewart’s online trolls, slamming them as “the problem.”
“The amount of judging and accusations of exaggerating while she was literally being eaten alive is beyond comprehension,” he wrote in a lengthy statement on September 5.
“She’s being abused for calling the shark a monster while she was in its mouth. She’s quite entitled to call it whatever she wants in this situation, the fact that people even bring that up is the reason we (put) warning labels on batteries telling us not to eat them.”
Nancarrow said he observed the baseless comment “it’s their home” more than he could count, questioning how it would make the situation “any more less scary.”
“Just because people are living life and not hiding behind their screens scared of everything in the big wide (world) doesn’t mean this stuff doesn’t suck, people die in car accidents all the time, cars are on the road, it’s still tragic,” he said.
“If a shark attack where a woman almost lost her life and a child her mother, makes you deep think into how you can belittle her in an online comment section as your first thought, YOU ARE THE PROBLEM.”
A host of people on the beach contributed to saving Stewart’s life, including a world champion paddleboarder who brought her to shore, a trauma-specialist doctor who was having a coffee nearby, and Life Savers and uniformed police on patrol.
In the hospital, Stewart’s left arm was amputated below the elbow; she was in an induced coma for 10 days and underwent multiple surgeries.
