After a Shark Tore Her Leg Apart, She Says Life Is Still Good

Justine Barwick, visiting from Tasmania, stood on the deck of a yacht off the Whitsunday Islands in 2018 and dived into the water. She was traveling with her husband and friends off Australia's northeastern coast. As her head broke the surface, a shark seized her.

Fueled by adrenaline, she pushed away from what was probably a tiger shark and swam for the stern. She tried to climb the swim ladder and could not understand why her right leg would not work. With help from her husband and a friend, she pulled herself into the cockpit and looked down. The inside of her right thigh was missing. "My femoral artery wasn't just severed, it was gone," Barwick said.

Friends called emergency services, and she was taken to Mackay Base Hospital.

Barwick's attack was one of a rising number in Australia. While attacks have declined in most of the rest of the world, Australia averaged roughly eight to 10 a year in the 1990s and has averaged in the high 20s since 2020. Jodi Rummer, a marine scientist in Queensland, said those counts also reflect "how many people are in the water" and how incidents are reported, along with where sharks and their prey are found.

Barwick has had several major operations. In the largest, surgeons worked for 18 hours, moving muscle from her stomach to her thigh to rebuild her leg. She kept the leg, though it does not work as it once did. "Life will never be the same, but life is also so good," Barwick said. She said she is grateful to have her leg.

Returning to a boat has itself been a major step. She said she loves Australia's natural environments. "We go swimming knowing that this is the home of wildlife that keeps our planet healthy," Barwick said. "I have no anger about this shark attack at all."