What began as a sunny beach outing between twin sisters and their mother quickly turned into a life-altering nightmare.
In June 2023, 15-year-old twins Ellie and Lulu Gribbin, along with their mother, Ann Blair Gribbin, and a group of friends, were vacationing at Rosemary Beach in Walton County, Florida.
It was meant to be a relaxing day in the sun. After breakfast, the group made their way to the shoreline around 10:30AM, eager to enjoy the clear waters and soft sand.
The sisters waded out to a sandbar, searching for sand dollars, flattened sea urchins often found in the shallow Gulf waters. But their morning quickly turned to terror.
As they began swimming back to shore, Ellie and Lulu spotted a shark in the water. “We just started swimming for our lives,” Ellie later told ABC News. She reached land first, then turned around. What she saw froze her in place.
“The entire ocean was red,” she recalled. “Waves were bringing in blood. And then I realized… Lulu was gone.”
Lulu had been attacked. In a split second, the shark tore into her hand and leg. Ellie, panicked but determined, tried to rush back into the water to help her twin, only to see a man already pulling Lulu to shore, CBS News reported.
What Ellie witnessed next was a living nightmare for any loved one. “Her hand was completely gone. There was just a stump, flesh and muscle. Her leg was mangled, too. I could see the bone," she recalled.
Despite her own fear, Ellie stayed by Lulu’s side, holding her eyelids open to keep her conscious. “She was trying to scream, but the pain was so overwhelming, all she could do was make this quiet, awful sound,” Ellie said.
Lulu was quickly airlifted to a hospital in Pensacola, where surgeons worked to save her life. She ultimately lost her left hand and most of her right leg, but she survived, per WIAT.
Over the following months, Lulu underwent numerous surgeries and rehabilitation. Just three months after the attack, she walked out of the hospital using a prosthetic leg and arm - a powerful demonstration of her resilience and unwavering spirit.
Now, a year after the incident, Lulu is using her experience to help others. She founded the Lulu Strong Foundation, which supports innovation and assistance for amputees facing similar challenges.
“Despite these severe injuries, Lulu has shown incredible strength,” the foundation’s website reads. “She’s taken her trauma and transformed it into a mission, fueled by grit, compassion, and the desire to make a difference.”