Woman fighting for her life after being mauled by a shark
A hero vet and her wife rushed to help save a woman who was attacked by a shark while she was swimming in Sydney Harbour.
Emergency services rushed to the scene at Billyard Avenue in Elizabeth Bay at 7.45pm on Monday to find the woman who had been bitten by a bull shark.
The woman, who is believed to be in her 20s or early 30s had a severe bite on her right leg.
An unnamed vet and her wife, Georgia, were first on the scene after the attack and the couple applied a tourniquet to help keep her alive until medics arrived.
Georgia described how she and her wife heard a shout and then the victim ‘swam up to a boat, but on the way back she got bitten by a bull shark’.
She continued: ‘We ran out, my wife’s a vet, she basically bandaged it up… bone’s broken, it’s pretty hectic actually.
‘She seems to be OK, she’s in a lot of shock. So am I.
‘We got some bandages, we kept her warm and my wife basically bandaged her up to stop the bleeding.
‘If she got bitten (further) out there, she wouldn’t have survived.’
A helicopter and several medical units then rushed to the scene, which was on a private wharf in the harbour.
The woman was taken to St Vincent’s Hospital, where she remains in critical condition.
A New South Wales Ambulance spokesperson said: ‘She had serious bleeding. Her injuries are severe.’
New South Wales Police confirmed the woman was swimming when she was then bitten on her right leg and has suffered several serious lacerations.
A police spokesperson said in a statement: ‘Police have been told she was swimming off the wharf at the time. Marine Area Command are patrolling the area as a precaution,’ the spokesperson said.
‘(The NSW Department of) Primary Industries will be the agency to determine if the woman was bitten by a shark/what kind of shark.’
In 2022, British man Simon Nellist was killed in a great white shark attack just off Little Bay in south east Sydney.
Before that, the last death from a shark attack in Sydney was 60 years ago
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