WALTON COUNTY, Fla.(WSVN)- A teen was attacked by a shark off of Florida’s panhandle while on vacation, and despite a rough road to recovery she’s now setting new goals for herself.
Alabama teen Lulu Gribbin was on a mom and daughters beach trip in Florida with her twin sister Ellie and some friends, when she was attacked by what witnesses described to be a Bull Shark in the waist deep water.
“I just remember seeing this big brown shadow, and i just turned around and just started swimming as fast as I could,” said Lulu. “It was really the perfect beach day, there wasn’t a single cloud in the sky, and I just remember turning around and my best friend was just, like, screaming.”
June 7th 2024 was the day that changed Lulu’s life forever.
“I started swimming as fast as i could and then, like, in the movies they’re like, oh, ‘you can’t be, like, frantic or else they’re gonna come after you’, so i just stopped swimming, and the next thing I know is that I raised my hand out of the water and there just was no hand there,” said Lulu. “I was in shock, I could never feel the shark bite it off, but I just remember being like, whoa, I looked down and I was like, this is really happening.”
Lulu was pulled to the shore, going in and out of consciousness, with grave injuries to her arm and leg, and was air-lifted to a hospital for emergency surgery.
Her mother and sister having to take an agonizing hour and a half journey by car to reach her.
“Just keep breathing, please keep breathing, God, please let her keep breathing, we didn’t know anything, we would have no idea if she was alive,” said Ann Blair Gribbin, Lulu’s mother. “So we got to Pensacola, and Ellie and I literally jumped out of the car and ran, and ran into the emergency room and they said, she’s alive.”
“It was terrifying, not knowing, as I flew down to Pensacola, if I was going to see my daughter, or, you know get her body, or recover her,” said Joe Gribbin, Lulu’s father.
Lulu lost her left hand in the attack, and despite doctors best efforts her right leg had to be amputated between the knee and hip, as they were unable to save it.
She spent over two months in the hospital and underwent multiple surgeries during that time, which included a targeted muscle reinnervation procedure.
“The nerve endings are reassigned to muscles within the limb and treats pain within the limb that’s still there, but it also can help with a patient when they’re trying to control an electric prosthetic,” said Dr. Bryan Loeffler.
“Once we reassign those nerves, and when the brain thinks, close my hand, that muscle that it’s been assigned to is gonna fire, and then in the prosthesis closes it,” said Dr. Glenn Gaston.
Since returning home to Alabama, Lulu hasn’t let her injuries slow her down, taking up golfing, water skiing, and is now prepping for one more sport thanks to a new leg.
“I also just relearned how to run, so we’re still figuring out things,” said Lulu. “I hope to be in the Paralympics for track.”
Using her experience, Lulu is helping change lives backing Lulu’s law, which would create a federal alert system similar to an amber alert that would warn beachgoers of nearby shark attacks.
She also launched a foundation named Lulu Strong that aims to help expand access to the latest technology for all amputees.
“I think knowing that I have a large support system behind me, and just continuing to get better, not only for myself, but for them, and just show them that anything is possible and just knowing that God decided to save me, and so just showing him that he performed a miracle on the right person,” said Lulu.
Lulu’s passion for creating a shark alert system came from a terrifying coincidence, as there turned out to be another attack just 90 minutes earlier, further down the same beach.
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