When Tatyana Koltunyuk pictured her life post-retirement, she imagined walking around New York City with a new puppy and traveling the world with her family. She talked about swimming in the ocean every day, her family said.

But Ms. Koltunyuk’s vision for the future was irrevocably altered when she was bitten by a shark at Rockaway Beach in Queens last week. She was swimming alone near Beach 59th Street in the early evening when the shark bit her on the left leg, according to officials, and lifeguards responded when they heard her screaming for help.

Ms. Koltunyuk, 65, now has “a permanent disability,” and she is expected to need several years of intense physical therapy and medical monitoring, according to a statement that her daughter, Dasha Koltunyuk, and her son-in-law, Gregg Kallor, released on Thursday. They did not provide details on the nature of her disability.

In the eight days immediately following the attack — days that her family described as “nightmarish” on a GoFundMe page raising money for Ms. Koltunyuk’s recovery — Ms. Koltunyuk underwent five surgeries, and her family said she will require more.