The pregnant wife of former NBA star Danilo Gallinari has offered an update on her condition after she was attacked by a shark.
Eleonora Boi was bitten by a shark while vacationing with her family in Puerto Rico last month. Boi, 39, was six months pregnant at the time of the attack.
“I have to say, I am traumatized,” Boi said Thursday, August 14, on Good Morning America. “I started crying. I was screaming for help in Italian.”
Boi, her husband, 37, and their two children — daughter Anatasia, 4, and son Rodolfo, 2 — were swimming in waist deep water when she was alerted to her leg.
“I felt a strong pain and my thigh was burning,” Boi recalled. “But my idea was, ‘Maybe it’s a huge jellyfish.’ But in the reality it wasn’t a jellyfish.”
Gallinari grabbed the kids and helped his wife get to shore, where a woman helped tend to Boi’s wound with a towel.
“She was an angel,” Boi said. “She helped so much. I would like to say thank you to this woman because I don’t know her name. I just want to say thank you to her because she helped a lot.”
Boi recalled telling the woman, “I don’t want to die.”
After first responders hit the scene, Boi was rushed to the hospital where she underwent “hours of tests” to make sure her unborn baby was still in good health.
“After they gave us our information that the kid was OK and nothing happened to him, they started the surgery process,” said Gallinari, who joined his wife for the interview.
Boi is expected to make a full recovery as the couple prepares to welcome their third baby, but she admitted reflecting on the shark attack has been challenging.
“I have to be honest, it’s not easy,” she said. “Because when I remember I’m still scared. It’s difficult.”
Gallinari — who now plays for the Vaqueros de Bayamón of Puerto Rico’s Baloncesto Superior Nacional — has vowed to give his wife grace as she begins to rehabilitate mentally from the attack.
“I think that the body in this situation recovers faster than the mind and that’s something you [shouldn’t] have to be ashamed of or scared of,” he said.
Prior to signing to play professionally in Puerto Rico in January 2025, Gallinari played 14 seasons in the NBA with the New York Knicks, Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Clippers, Oklahoma City Thunder, Atlanta Hawks, Washington Wizards, Detroit Pistons and Milwaukee Bucks.
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