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“She…was eagerly anticipating her retirement, when she could — for the first time in her life — take a break.”
Tatyana Koltunyuk was bitten by a shark on the left leg on Monday, Aug. 7 while swimming at Rockaway Beach in Queens, setting her forth on a life path her family could not anticipate.
The 65-year-old woman was close to retirement, meant to be a promise of rest after a “grueling” life, as her daughter describes in a GoFundMe set up to help cover her medical expenses.
Now, however, she faces a several-year-long road to recovery, and is still currently in the hospital for “at least several more weeks, and possibly more.”
Darya, Tatyana’s daughter, described her mother in the fundraiser as a “fiercely intelligent and passionate woman” who emigrated from Ukraine while Darya was just three years old.
Her husband died of a heart attack not long after, leaving Tatyana a single mother who could not continue her career as a marine engineer due to language barriers but worked tirelessly nonetheless to provide for her family.
Tatyana told her daughter she was looking forward to retirement.
“She talked about swimming in the ocean every day, walking around the city with a new puppy, and traveling with us,” but Darya and her husband are unsure how much of that will be feasible, as she leaves the shark attack with a permanent disability and significant financial strain. "It has become clear in the nightmarish days since her trauma that the expenses for her care and post-trauma adjusted living will be considerable."
During the first day the GoFundMe was active, donors supplied Tatyana with nearly $28,000 of the $100,000 goal.
There have been a number of shark bites in the past few months, prompting beaches on Long Island to prohibit swimming.
On Monday, July 3, a 16-year-old was bitten by a shark while paddling in the water off Kismet Beach on Fire Island.
Just one day later in Quogue, a 47-year-old man was bitten while swimming; later that day off the coast of Fire Island, a Brooklyn woman also suffered injuries to her upper leg when she was bit.
According to her family, the extent of Tatyana’s injuries is not yet clear, but they are absolutely life-altering.
“Limitless in the love and generosity she showers upon others, my mother is an empathetic, thoughtful, and deeply proud woman who would never ask for anything, always putting others before herself,” Darya wrote.
“So we are asking for help on her behalf.”
To donate to Tatyana’s GoFundMe, click here.
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