Latest / KIIS Breakfast / 💔 Shark attack victim Leah Stewart speaks out for the first time...

Transcript

💔 Shark attack victim Leah Stewart speaks out for the first time... · KIIS Breakfast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This is Kiss Breakfast. Tracey Grimshaw is joining us live
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: on air right now.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so there's a special 60 Minutes episode airing this
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Sunday where Tracey will speak to Leah Stewart. She's the
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: young mum that was mauled by a suspected 3.5 metre
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: great white shark back in June at Coogee Beach in Sydney. Now,
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: she was swimming between the flags when it happened as well.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: So she suffered multiple bites to her arms and legs.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: She was placed in an induced coma. had several surgeries
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: and ended up having to have one of her arms amputated.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and Tracey sits down with her in a special
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: and we're going to chat about it right now. Good morning, Tracey.
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: Morning, Mike. Morning, Matt.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Hello. So, I mean, this is the first time she
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: has spoken to the public. How is she going? Because
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: it's been a horrible experience.
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: Awful. Look, she's a remarkable girl. She has been through
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: the worst, most catastrophic events that we could all imagine,
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: of course. She's got a few bumps ahead of her. Obviously,
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: she's lost her arm. She's lost her arm below her elbow.
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: She's lost a massive chunk of her left side, basically
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: the entire, the shark bit her left thigh and took
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: the entire outside muscle out which obviously that's gone so
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: she's had to learn to walk again using a different
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: set of muscles on that leg um the skin graft
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: hasn't taken so she may need more surgery she has
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: to wear a pump to try and you know, pull
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: that skin together. So, you know, it's not plain sailing.
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: There's no question about that. But she's trying to look
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: on the bright side. She's a very resilient girl. Okay.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Now, look, I was actually in the, not that beach,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: but I was swimming around that same time. I swim
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: a lot. I love my ocean swims. Does she talk
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: about the moment? Because from memory, they were only about
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: 30 metres off Coogee Beach. Does she relive the moment
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: that the shark came up?
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah, she does. She remembers everything. It's extraordinary. Normally, people
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: who have a big trauma, you know, I think there's
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: something about self-preservation in the body that wipes your memory. Yeah,
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: it's not blacked out for her. She remembers every single
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: chilling minute of it, and she will tell you that
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: on Sunday night. I mean, look, and it was very
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: close to shore. You know, she broke none of the
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: rules on the day. She loves swimming, and she swims
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: across Coogee Bay, Well, she used to swim across Coogee
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: Bay pretty regularly, but she was always mindful of sharks.
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: You know, she would always swim close to shore and
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: only on a clear day. And, you know, it was
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: the middle of the day. It wasn't dawn or dusk,
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: all of those things that we're told today. you know,
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: dodgy times to swim, you know, in terms of shark activity.
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: She didn't break any of the rules. But, you know,
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: clearly the shark broke the rules. I guess the shark
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: didn't read the press release.
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: I mean, going to the beach and having a swim
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: is kind of part of Aussie culture. And obviously something
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: horrific has happened to her. But did she talk to
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: you about whether or not she's happy to go in
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: the ocean and have a swim ever again? Or has
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: that kind of turned her off something that she loved
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: for life?
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: She's a long way off being able to go in
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: the ocean again. She can't have a shower now without
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: wrapping her leg in plastic because the skin graft hasn't healed. But,
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: you know, looking into the future, I think that she
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: will swim again. And I think that she, you know,
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: I think she probably thinks that she would like to
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: go in the ocean again. I think she's a way
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: off that. Honestly, in terms of reality, she's a way
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: off doing that. But I think her plan is that
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: she would like to get back there again.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And over your career, Tracey, you've reported on some
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: pretty amazing and unbelievable stories. Is Leah's story up there
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: with one of the most traumatic and impactful that you've done?
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: It is definitely, it is an epic story of survival.
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: And I've done, you know, I also spoke with the
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: Beaconsfield miners, you know, from Launceston, and that was another
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: epic story of survival under, you know, radically different circumstances,
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: of course. I think when you talk to someone who's
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: been through a catastrophic event in their lives, you learn something.
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: You learn something about human resilience. You learn something about
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: human nature. And every story teaches you something different. This story, well,
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: I think in a lot of them, you learn that
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: it takes a village. And in Leah's case, it was
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: a village of people who saved her on that day.
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: She would have died multiple times. on that day without
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: human intervention, starting with her own in the moment of
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: the attack and the decisions that she made and the
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: fight she put up. But then, you know, she had
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: a world champion paddleboarder a few metres away, Charlie Bercow. Yes, yes.
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: Paddled into blood-stained water and pulled her up.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: I know, what an amazing, yeah.
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: Extraordinary. And then an extraordinary ambulance, high-level ambulance doctor, emergency doctor,
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: who happened to be on the beach buying his kids
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: a milkshake before... you know, his daughter's dance class, who
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: took control of everything on the beach and drilled into
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: the bones of her shoulder to get, you know, blood
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: and fluid into her bone marrow because her veins had collapsed.
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: I mean, what are the chances of him being on
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: the beach when this happens?
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: I know. It is just an incredible story. We will
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: be watching. So 60 Minutes special. It's airing on Sunday,
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: the 30th. So this Sunday, Channel 9 and 9 Now.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: It'll also be available on Stan from Monday. Tracey Grimshaw,
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: an incredible story. Thank you for coming on. Thank you, Tracey.
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: Thank you. Good to talk with you.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: Thanks a lot. All right, I'll be watching that on
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: Sunday night. Now, what is it, half past eight? We've
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: still got some celeb news to come up with Nat
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: and your last calls on 131065. It's Friday morning and
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: you're on KISS.