Eleonora Boi, the pregnant wife of former NBA player Danilo Gallinari, is opening up about recently getting bitten by a shark while in the water with her two children.
The Italian sports journalist first revealed that she survived a shark attack while at Carolina Resort in Puerto Rico in an Aug. 1 post on Instagram.
Eleonora Boi Was Attacked By Shark In Waist-Deep Waters
Boi and Gallinari appeared on the Thursday, Aug. 14 episode of Good Morning America to recount the experience and to praise “an angel” who was there to help her that day.
“I have to say that I’m traumatized. I started crying and screaming, and I was screaming for help in Italian,” Boi recalled about the encounter.
The attack occurred while Boi and Gallinari were swimming with their children in waist-deep waters. Boi explained that she didn’t initially worry about a shark right after the bite.
“I felt a strong pain, and my thigh was burning. But my idea was maybe it is a huge jellyfish. But in the reality, it wasn’t the jellyfish,” she said.
Gallinari recalled rushing to his wife and daughter before getting his family out of the water.
“As soon as everyone started screaming, I had my son with me. I ran towards my wife and my daughter,” said the former Denver Nuggets forward, who currently plays with the Vaqueros de Bayamón in Puerto Rico.
Good Samaritan Helped Boi
When the couple picked up their children and rushed to shore, they said a woman helped put pressure on Boi’s wound with a clean towel until help arrived.
“She was an angel. Danilo was with me, and she helped so much,” Boi recalled. “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. … Oh my god, I was saying, ‘I don’t want to die.’ And I wanted my baby safe, and I was crying. I was desperate.”
Boi said she was transported to the Río Piedras Medical Center, where doctors ran hours of tests to make sure the baby was OK before they decided on an operation for her.
“After they gave us confirmation that the kid was OK and nothing happened to him, then they started the surgery process,” Gallinari said.
According to Tommy Foster Jr. and Suzanne Yeo of ABC News, Boi’s doctors told her they had never treated a shark bite victim but expect Boi to make a full recovery.
She added that her body will recover “faster than the mind.”
Boi, who Gallinari married in July 2022, currently has weekly visits with her doctor and is due to give birth in November.
Danilo Gallinari Played 14 Years In The NBA
The 6-foot-10 Gallinari last played in the NBA during the 2023-24 season.
He played 14 years in the league with the New York Knicks, Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Clippers, Oklahoma City Thunder, Atlanta Hawks, Washington Wizards, Detroit Pistons, and Milwaukee Bucks.
Per Basketball Reference, in Denver’s 144-143 double-overtime win against the Dallas Mavericks on April 10, he recorded a career-high 47 points on 15-of-23 (65.2%) shooting from the field and 7-for-12 (58.3%) from deep.
In 777 career NBA regular-season games (563 starts), he averaged 14.9 points, 4.7 rebounds, 1.9 assists, and 28.8 minutes per contest while shooting 42.8% from the floor, 38.1% from 3-point range, and 87.6% at the foul line.
