Teen who lost limbs in horrifying shark attack details the one thing she heard before incident
Callum Jones
Featured Image Credit: ABC
A teenager who lost her limbs in a horrifying shark attack has detailed the one thing she heard before the shocking incident.
In June 2024, twin sisters Ellie and Lulu Gribbin had been enjoying a vacation in Florida when they took a mother-daughter trip to the beach.
They ventured into the sea to collect a type of urchin known as sand dollars, and while swimming the then 15-year-old twins spotted a shark.
Ellie told ABC last year that they started 'swimming for our lives' and she heard Lulu say something that sounded like 'stay calm'. Upon reaching the shore, Ellie looked back and saw blood in the sea.
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"The entire ocean is red, ocean waves bring the blood closer," she recalled.
Lulu's left hand was bitten off as a result of the attack, according to her mother, Ann, while doctors also had to amputate her right leg 'halfway up from her knee to her hip'.
More than a year after the attack, Lulu has recalled one of the last things she heard prior to the shark encounter.
Lulu said one of her friends was screaming before she caught a 'glimpse' of the shark.
"I just saw a shadow, but I never saw a tail or a fin," she told Good Morning America's Michael Strahan. "I never saw its eyes."
Within seconds, Lulu pulled her arm out of the water to find 'there was no hand there'.
"I just remember being like, 'Whoa.' I looked down and I was like, 'This is really happening,'" the teenager, from Alabama, recalled.
As she was brought back to shore, Lulu was in and out of consciousness, with sister Ellie playing a vital role in keeping her calm as they waited for emergency services to arrive.
"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 said.
"I just had to be there for her."
Lulu spent two months in hospital following the life-threatening incident and underwent multiple procedures.
Since the shark attack, the teen has set up the Lulu Strong Foundation which seeks to provide support to other amputees and their families, while she is also immersing herself in sports.
And after relearning how to run again, Lulu is aiming to reach the Paralympics.
She added: "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."