A woman attacked by a shark in Sydney has spoken out from her hospital bed she recovers in intensive care after marathon surgery to save her right leg.
Lauren O’Neill, 29, lost litres of blood after the shark ripped open her leg below the knee and bit through to the bone on Monday, but her limb was saved by surgeons at St Vincent’s who operated on her through the night.
Ms O’Neill spoke out from her hospital bed on Wednesday and said she was simply going for a swim after work when the attack took place.
She said she was not acting recklessly and was fully aware of the risks associated with swimming at dusk.
The swim was a routine for her nearly every evening, she said.
Her comment came after a marine biologist raised questions about why she was swimming in the shark-infested harbour as night fell, given that sharks are most active at that time.
Lauren O’Neill, 29, lost litres of blood after the shark ripped open her leg below the knee and bit through to the bone. Ms O’Neill is pictured on a stretcher
Lauren O’Neill (pictured) who was mauled by a bull shark in a shocking attack in Sydney Harbour
Ms O Neil thanked her neighbours for rushing to her rescue, including vet Dr Fiona Cargo, who bandaged her wound until paramedics arrived.
Ms O’Neill said she ‘Wishes to thank the heroic and very kind neighbours for the critical assistance provided’.
She was also ‘immensely grateful to the NSW Ambulance paramedics and Kings Cross Police for their swift and caring actions at the scene’.
She highlighted the care of ‘clinicians at St Vincent’s Hospital, particularly the specialist surgical teams who worked through the night’.
She also thanked her ‘beautiful family, friends and colleagues for their unflinching care and support’.
She’s now focusing on her recovery and thanked the public for their ‘outpouring of support and kindness.’
Emergency services rushed to a private wharf in in Elizabeth Bay at 7.45pm on Monday to find Ms O’Neill with a severe bite to her right leg and suffering ‘major blood loss’.
But before that, vet Dr Crago and her wife Georgia, who live in a nearby apartment, ran to help after hearing repeated screams of ‘shark attack!’.
Ms O’Neill was attacked near a jetty in Elizabeth Bay in Sydney Harbour (map pictured)
Dr Fiona Crago (right), her wife Georgia (left) and their neighbours gave first aid to Ms O’Neill until emergency services arrived
‘She was severely mauled on her right leg and she was losing a lot of blood,’ Dr Crago told Channel 10.
‘Neighbours had already started to render first aid to her. We had quite a few people that were so helpful.
‘People were throwing down towels and blankets to keep her warm but I just focused on what I had to do, which was to stem the blood flow and bandage the leg as best I can with what I had and just stabilise it. And then put a tourniquet on.’
Dr Crago, whose actions saved Ms O’Neill’s life, said she normally carried bandages due to her work but in recent days did not have the usual amount to hand as she had swapped cars.
‘But as a strange coincidence, my wife had actually gone up the road and bought two new compression bandages yesterday for another purpose, so I knew exactly where they were and just grabbed them, so it was quite lucky,’ she said.
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