A week after a 9-year-old girl was bitten by a shark at a Florida Beach, she and her family are speaking out about the incident.
Leah Lendel was in the water in Boca Grande, near Fort Myers, on June 11 when her hand was partially severed by the shark attack.
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WATCH HEREAfter being treated by rescue crews at the beach, she was airlifted to Tampa General Hospital.
Lendel and her family shared an update on her progress during a press conference on Thursday.
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"I didn't see anything, I was just snorkeling and went up to breathe, and then something hard bit me and then it tried to take me away," she said. "I pick up my hand and it's all on blood and then I started screaming."
Body camera footage captured the moments when officers and rescue crews responded to the beach after she was bitten by the shark.
Her mother didn't think she was going to keep her hand.
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"From what I witnessed, I didn't think she's going to have a hand, it was really, really bad," said Lendel's mother. "It's some sort of miracle that God did in our life that now she has a hand."
After being in surgery for six hours, Lendel still has her hand and can also move all her fingers.
