03/16/2011 Lisa Mondy ( Australia )

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Shark attack victim in stable condition

Lisa Mondy

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23 Mar, 2011 11:59 PM
FORMER Wauchope resident Lisa Monday was listed in a stable condition in John Hunter Hospital after surviving a shark attack at a Port Stephens beach last Tuesday.
A hospital spokesperson said she could not confirm the results of any surgery that may have helped save Ms Mondy’s left arm.

The shark attacked Ms Mondy several times after she fell while riding a wakeboard off a popular swimming spot, dragging her underwater at least twice.

‘’[It] grabbed hold of her face,’’ Glen Ramplin, a Hunter Rescue Helicopter spokesman, said.

‘’It’s got her a second time on the left upper arm and it’s pretty much taken her arm off. The bite on her arm is all the way to the bone.’’

Ms Mondy, who is originally from Wauchope but now lives at Nelson Bay, was wakeboarding with a group of friends and colleagues from Port Stephens Parasailing, where she works.

An Ambulance NSW spokesman said Ms Mondy suffered ‘’very severe’’ arm injuries as well as serious wounds to her head, shoulder and right side of her neck in the attack.

Friends rushed Ms Mondy back to a wharf at Nelson Bay where she was met and treated by paramedics.

She was transported to John Hunter by helicopter

http://www.wauchopegazette.com.au/news/ ... 12229.aspx

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Lisa Mondy tells of her great white terror

EXCLUSIVE by Clementine Cuneo
From:The Daily Telegraph
April 12, 201112:00AM

No ill will ... Lisa Mondy, 24, who was the victim of a shark attack / Pic: Liam Driver Source: The Daily Telegraph

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Bitten to the bone ... Lisa Mondy lifts her head on arrival at hospital / Pic: Liam Driver Source: News Limited

No ill will ... Lisa Mondy, 24, who was the victim of a shark attack / Pic: Liam Driver Source: The Daily Telegraph

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SHE was nearly killed by one of the ocean's fiercest predators.

But shark attack victim Lisa Mondy holds no ill-will towards the creature that mauled her face and almost ripped off her arm.

Returning to the Port Stephens beach where she was attacked last month, the 24-year-old spoke publicly for the first time yesterday about her encounter with the great white that, incredibly, she still liked and respected.

"My face was like minced meat ... but it wasn't its fault, it was just one of those things," Ms Mondy told The Daily Telegraph.

"I didn't see it coming, the first I knew was when it grabbed my face. As weird as it sounds, the first thing I thought was 'Hey, I've always stuck up for sharks, why are you doing this to me?'."

The horrific scarring on her face and cumbersome bandage on her arm are constant reminders of her brush with death. Her mouth and neck are disfigured and she has barely any movement in her left arm, but she said frankly: "I'm alive."

Ms Mondy told of the terrifying moment the shark latched on to her face and ripped open her chin and neck.

It swam off, only to return and grab her left arm, nearly wrenching it from her shoulder.

She had been wakeboarding near Jimmys Beach, at Port Stephens on March 16, when the shark, lurking in the clear water, reared up without warning.

She had just fallen from her wakeboard, and was waiting for the boat to turn back and pick her up, when she was attacked. When the great white released its grasp on her face, Ms Mondy barely had a chance to catch her breath before the monster did an about-turn and had a second bite.

The shark grabbed her left arm, shredding it so badly doctors first feared the only option for the young survivor would be to have it amputated.

"It's pretty awful under there," she said, revealing some of the wound to her upper arm. "But at least I've got it."

Ms Mondy spent two weeks in Newcastle's John Hunter Hospital after numerous operations to save her arm, which doctors achieved, and to repair her torn face.

Although she has just returned home to the Nelson Bay area, yesterday was not the first time the self-confessed "water lover" has been back to visit the scene of the shocking incident.

"I didn't want this to ruin my love of the water, so it was important for me to get back as soon as I could," she said.

"I went out on a boat, pretty much to the spot. I couldn't get in as I can't get my arm wet, but I want to get back in."

Through her recovery Ms Mondy has been buoyed by the support of family and friends, and even words of encouragement, and bedside visit, by another shark attack survivor, David Pearson, a surfer mauled a week later at Crowdy Head.

"It's like I've joined some elite club for shark attack victims," she joked. "Dave was in hospital at the same time as me, so he came and saw me. It was really nice." She has also been contacted by Paul de Gelder, a navy diver who lost his right hand and part of his right leg in a shark attack near Garden Island, in Sydney Harbour, in February 2009.


http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/i ... 6037468347

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Lisa Mondy’s Horrible Shark Attack

LISA Mondy just 24 years of age was attacked by a great white shark at Port Stevens Bay on the 16th March.

She was wakeboarding when she went to do a jump and fell off, after a second or two swimming back to the boat in the freestyle stroke the shark came up and bit her arm and the side of her face near her jaw.

She managed to pull her face out of the shark’s jaws and lucky she did or her artery in her neck would have been torn in half. She still has severe injuries to the face and arm.

With the bravery of Rowan Cutbush who jumped in to save her (putting his life at risk as well), she was pulled back on the boat. Mark Green was on the boat closing of the arteries in her arm. She was safely secured while still on the boat.

The ambulance came for Lisa and drove her to the waiting Westpac helicopter witch flew her straight to John Hunter Hospital.

They spent 16 hours in operating theatre at John Hunter Hospital and she ended up with 109 stitches in the face and 117 in the arm, after the surgery she felt tired, weak and strange.

She got back in the water three months after the devastating accident; she also got a souvenir, two teeth marks in her jaw bone.

http://www.wauchopegazette.com.au/news/ ... 76550.aspx

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Shark nets should go: victim speaks out

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LISA Mondy wants to get one thing straight – she’s not a ‘‘greenie’’ or a ‘‘shark weirdo’’. She is a woman who survived a vicious attack from a great white shark and is now lending her voice to a campaign aimed at eradicating the netting that kills the ocean’s most feared predators.
Ms Mondy, 25, said the attack on Charlestown tattoo artist Glen ‘‘Lenny’’ Folkard’’ at Redhead beach on January18 only added weight to the argument that netted beaches were outdated.

‘‘Shark nets, like the ones at Redhead beach, are used purely on the principal that less sharks mean less attacks,’’ she said.

‘‘They don’t work as a barrier and protect us from shark attacks. They only indiscriminately kill a lot of marine species including sea turtles, dugongs, dolphins, whales, seals and of course sharks,’’ she said. ‘‘Shark netting was introduced over 70 years ago and is now outdated and in dire need of revising.’’

Ms Mondy, of Port Stephens, is suggesting a warning system or safety rating be introduced to help swimmers and surfers make their own decisions about the water’s safety.

‘‘Something that looks at the movement of bait fish, seals and other things that are known to attract sharks as well as water visibility and temperature could provide an accurate safety rating for people wanting to go into the water,’’ she said.

‘‘You could even develop it into an iPhone application and when people go to check the weather they could just check the water safety for that day as well.

‘‘I think something like that would significantly decrease the incidence of encounters with sharks and people could analyse the risk themselves and make their own decision and take a bit of responsibility for their own safety.’’

Ms Mondy was wakeboarding off Jimmys beach on March16 last year when a great white shark attacked her twice, dragging her underwater and mauling her neck and left arm.

She ‘‘owed her life’’ to Rowan Cutbush, who dived into the water and helped drag her to the safety of a boat, and Mark Green, who immediately began administering first aid.

‘‘He [Rowan] had his hand inside my arm, clogging my artery,’’ she said.

‘‘It was just bone, there was just tatters left, it was all hanging by a thread.’’

Surgeons saved her arm after a 16-hour operation.


http://www.theherald.com.au/news/local/ ... 35571.aspx