Family of Rockaway Beach shark attack victim breaks silence

Publish date: 2024-07-26

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The family of the 65-year-old Queens woman who lost “20 pounds of flesh” in a grisly shark attack off Rockaway Beach said Wednesday she is “grateful to be alive” after the harrowing encounter.

“Our mother is grateful to be alive … and we’re all thankful to the lifeguards, emergency response workers, and team at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center,” a representative told The Post on behalf of the loved ones of Tatyana Koltunyuk, who remained hospitalized following the Monday evening attack.

“We are deeply moved by the outpouring of support we have received, but for now we ask above all for everyone to respect our privacy as we focus all of our energies on helping her to recover.”

Koltunyuk was “treading water and relaxing” only about 10 feet off shore near Beach 59th Street shortly before 6 p.m. Monday when she started screaming for help, Chief Lifeguard Jose Diaz told The Post.

“We saw that she was bitten [on the leg]. The blood was coming out a lot so they gave her a tourniquet with the buoy, which has a rope, and they tied it so she doesn’t bleed to death,” the 68-year-old said of how his colleagues saved Koltunyuk’s life.

Lifeguards saved Koltunyuk’s life with a makeshift tourniquet before the ambulance arrived. NY Post

Photos showed the mother of one looking dazed and pale while first responders administered aid on the beach and in an ambulance en route to Jamaica Hospital.

Medical staff later said that Koltunyuk was in stable but critical condition.

“[It’s] definitely a shark bite,” Dr. Gavin Naylor, the Program Director at the Florida Program for Shark Research, told The Post after seeing an image of the victim’s wound.

Beach personnel put up “no swimming” flags after the Monday evening attack. Gabriella Bass

“Looks as though it was a fairly clean single bite with some force. You can see the spacing between the teeth,” he continued while noting he would need to see the other side of the woman’s leg “to narrow the species down.”

Diaz, who has been lifeguarding for over 50 years, said that he has never seen anything like what happened to Koltunyuk, who was known by lifeguards to visit the beach regularly,

“She lost a lot of blood. The artery came right out. You could see the bones and everything. It was crazy,” he recalled.

Tatyana Koltunyuk, 65, is originally from Ukraine. Facebook/Tatyana Koltunyuk

“We go swimming with the lifeguards and we see sharks but they don’t really do anything to us. This is the first time this happened. It’s weird. Everybody’s afraid to go into the water now. I don’t blame them.”

The popular Queens beach was closed on Tuesday, but reopened on Wednesday while NYPD and FDNY said they would be scanning the waters for shark activity daily using drones and other methods.

The attack is believed to be the area’s first since 1953.

Koltunyuk is believed to have lost 20 pounds of flesh in the attack. NY Post

Koltunyuk, of Astoria, is originally from Odessa, Ukraine, her Facebook profile indicates.

Her daughter, Dasha Koltunyuk, is a renowned pianist who graduated from Princeton University, according to her website.

Dasha is married to composer and pianist Gregg Kallor, whose PR team, Unison Media, is representing the family following Monday’s incident.

She declined to comment Tuesday outside the hospital where her mother is recovering.

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