Lulu Gribbin’s Journey from Shark Attack to Advocacy and Paralympic Dreams

Pensacola, Florida – In her first sit-down interview, 16-year-old Lulu Gribbin opened up about her recovery from a life-changing shark attack that occurred in June 2024 while she was vacationing with her family in Florida. The Alabama teen was swimming with her twin sister, Ellie, when a bull shark attacked her in waist-deep water.

“I just remember seeing this big brown shadow, I just turned around and just started swimming as fast as I could,” Lulu recounted during the interview aired on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025, on Good Morning America. “The next thing I know is that I raised my hand out of the water and there was just no hand there.”

After the attack, Lulu lost her left hand, and doctors later amputated her right leg between the knee and hip due to the severity of her injuries. As she was being airlifted to a local hospital, her family feared the worst. Her mother, Ann Blair Gribbin, recalled telling her, “Just keep breathing. Please keep breathing. God, please let her keep breathing.”

Despite losing nearly two-thirds of her blood, Lulu survived and spent over two months hospitalized at OrthoCarolina’s Limb Loss Recovery Center in Charlotte. During her recovery, she underwent several surgeries, including targeted muscle re-innervation, which was explained by Dr. Bryan Loeffler, “The nerve endings are reassigned to muscles within the limb and help control a prosthetic.”

Lulu also participated in virtual reality therapy designed to ease phantom limb pain, an issue affecting many amputees. Dr. Glenn Gaston, part of her care team, described how the therapy helps patients visualize and control their missing limbs.

Since returning to Alabama, Lulu has embraced sports, including golf and waterskiing. “There’s a golf attachment. This hand comes off, and then I attach a golf attachment,” she explained. Lulu now dreams of competing in the Paralympics.

“Why not? I hope to be in the Paralympics for track,” she stated confidently. Lulu is also advocating for “Lulu’s Law,” a proposed alert system to notify beachgoers of nearby shark attacks, emphasizing the need for increased awareness after another attack occurred just before hers.

“Before my attack, there was another shark attack 90 minutes before me just a few miles down the coast,” she said. “If I would’ve known about this, I would not have been in the water.”

In addition to her legal advocacy, Lulu is establishing the Lulu Strong Foundation to support amputees and advance innovative treatments. “We want to take what Lulu experienced to help others,” her mother said.

Lulu credits her strength and determination to her family and faith, remarking, “I have a large support system behind me and just showing them that anything is possible. God decided to save me, and I want to show him that he performed a miracle on the right person.”