Pensacola shark attack leaves Alabama teen seriously injured, mother recounts ordeal

A teenage girl was left “lifeless” following a horrific shark attack, during which she lost her leg and hand to the beast, her mother has shared. Experiencing a scene that seemed straight from the jaws of Spielberg, Lulu Gribbin, 15, and her friend McCray Faust, 17, were enjoying the pristine blue waters of Pensacola, Florida, when disaster struck in the form of a predatory shark .

Lulu, who was on a mother-daughter trip from Alabama at the time, was the victim of the brutal attack. Beachgoers had only just been alerted to the presence of sharks in the waters when they realized the horror that had occurred: Lulu’s twin sister, Ellie, rushed to shore screaming that her sister had been mutilated.

Opening up online, her mother, Ann Blair Gribbin, described the heartbreaking scene: “She was lifeless, eyes closed, mouth white and pale. The wound on her leg or whatever was left of her leg had come out “I finally came back to her and held her hand, she saw me and I told her I was there,” reports the Daily Star.

In a twist of fate that could save their lives, two doctors were by chance enjoying their escapade on the same beach when Lulu was violently attacked. They responded to administer immediate emergency care to Lulu, who was then quickly airlifted to Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola.

Her mother recounted how she implored the heavens throughout the journey. Fortunately, young Gribben survived the severe bites. However, once she arrived at the hospital, she was informed of the devastating need to amputate her right hand and remove her left leg below the knee.

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During this wild incident, she also ended up losing a substantial amount of blood, two-thirds of her total amount. On Saturday June 8, Lulu’s condition improved significantly, allowing her to remove the tube from her throat and allowing her to breathe independently.

“It was a big first step,” he said. “Once she got settled in, her first words to us were, ‘I made it.’ And that’s what she did.” Meanwhile, on the same Friday, just an hour and a half later, Elisabeth Foley, 45, was also the victim of a shark attack at another Pensacola shoreline beach. Experts believe it was likely the same shark that attacked earlier in the day.

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