A 9-year-old girl was attacked by a shark while snorkeling off the Florida Gulf Coast, with the animal nearly biting her entire hand off, her family said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At approximately 12 p.m. on Wednesday, 9-year-old Leah Lendel was swimming in Boca Grande, Florida, near the shore, with her mother and two younger siblings about 4 feet away from her, Leah’s family said in a statement provided to ABC News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Leah then went underwater to snorkel, but as she came up, “she screamed,” the family said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her mother, Nadia Lendel, looked over and saw her daughter’s right hand “up to the wrist all in blood and mostly torn off,” the family said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the mother screamed for help, she attempted to get Leah and her other children out to shore, with her husband — who was snorkeling “some distance away” — swimming “as fast as possible to shore,” the family said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once Leah made it to the shore, nearby construction workers who were on their lunch break assisted the family by calling for paramedics and putting a towel “to make a tourniquet and stop the blood loss,” the family said.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the construction workers, Alfonso Tello, told ABC Southwest Florida affiliate WZVN<\/a> the shark that attacked Leah was about 8 feet long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Everybody was in shock,” Tello told WZVN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After paramedics arrived on scene, they decided to airlift Leah to Tampa General Hospital for treatment, the Boca Grande Fire Department told ABC News in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Leah underwent a “long surgery” once at the hospital, the family said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “We ask for mostly prayers and privacy at this time so we can process the situation,” the family said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The status of Leah’s condition as of Thursday remains unclear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n