An adolescent who suffered a devastating shark attack resulting in the loss of her limbs has shared what she remembers hearing just before the terrifying event took place.
During June 2024, Ellie and Lulu Gribbin, twin sisters, were on a vacation in Florida and decided to partake in a mother-daughter outing to the beach.
While in the ocean collecting sand dollars, a type of urchin, the then 15-year-old twins encountered a shark.
Ellie recounted to ABC last year that in the midst of ‘swimming for our lives,’ she heard Lulu say something resembling ‘stay calm.’ Upon safely reaching the shore, Ellie turned back to see blood discoloring the water.
“The entire ocean is red, ocean waves bring the blood closer,” she remembered.
The attack resulted in Lulu’s left hand being bitten off, as confirmed by her mother, Ann. Furthermore, doctors had to amputate her right leg ‘halfway up from her knee to her hip.’
More than a year after the incident, Lulu reflected on one of the last things she perceived before the shark attack.
Lulu mentioned that a friend was yelling before she caught a fleeting ‘glimpse’ of the predator.
“I just saw a shadow, but I never saw a tail or a fin,” she shared with Good Morning America’s Michael Strahan. “I never saw its eyes.”
Mere moments later, Lulu realized her arm was severely injured, noting ‘there was no hand there.’
“I just remember being like, ‘Whoa.’ I looked down and I was like, ‘This is really happening,'” Lulu, who hails from Alabama, recounted.
As she was being brought ashore, Lulu drifted in and out of consciousness, with her sister Ellie proving crucial in helping her stay calm until emergency responders arrived.
“I just knew, kind of what she needed and what she needed to hear at the time. Because there was so much going on, so much commotion,” Ellie explained.
“I just had to be there for her.”
Lulu endured two months in the hospital after the life-threatening ordeal and underwent numerous surgical procedures.
Since the attack, she has initiated the Lulu Strong Foundation to support other amputees and their families, while also diving into sports activities.
Having relearned how to run, Lulu now aspires to compete in the Paralympics.
She expressed: “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.”