The teenage victims of a shark attack off the Florida Peninsula have been identified as Lulu Gribbin, who lost a hand and leg, and McCray Faust, who suffered injuries to her foot.
Ann Blair Gribbin, Lulu’s mother, told how her first mother-daughter trip to the beach quickly turned into horror as she shared an update with friends and family online.
On Friday, the Gribbin family along with several friends visited Seacrest Beach. After returning from lunch, Ann Blair returned to the beach and discovered that there was a shark in the water.
A crowd formed around the edge of the ocean, which had been evacuated by Walton County authorities and lifeguards. That’s when Lulu’s twin sister, Ellie, came to her and told her that Lulu had been attacked.
‘I saw his injuries on his leg and started screaming. She was lifeless, her eyes closed, her mouth white and pale. The wound on her leg or whatever was left of her leg was something out of a movie,” Gribbin said.
Lulu Gribbin was one of the teenagers attacked by a shark on Friday. Her bites were so severe that surgeons had to amputate “her right leg halfway from knee to hip,” according to a Facebook post written by her mother.
Pictured: Emergency professionals remove shark bite victims from the beach and airlift them to the hospital.
This brutal attack occurred around 3 p.m., according to South Walton Fire District Fire Chief Ryan Crawford, who said both girls needed tourniquets applied to their bite wounds.
Ann Blair was able to reach her daughter, who she said saw her approaching. Lulu’s eyes were still open so her worried mother took her hand.
Almost immediately, emergency services carried her off the beach and into a helicopter.
Lulu was flown to Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola, and it took an hour and 20 minutes to arrive.
“We prayed the whole way,” Ann Blair wrote.
‘We arrived at the Sacred Heart and Lulú was already in surgery, but they answered my prayer that she was alive and her vital signs were fine,’ adding that the surgeons told her, ‘the shark had bitten Lulú’s left hand and that his right leg had been amputated halfway from the knee to the hip.
While the first teenage victim was airlifted to a trauma center in Pensacola in critical condition, the other was airlifted by ambulance in stable condition.
After the attacks, Walton County closed several miles of Gulf of Mexico waters and began flying double red flags. Some beaches have since reopened.
Ann Blair wrote that Lulu lost two-thirds of her blood in the attack, putting her life in danger. Experts say that if a human loses more than 40 percent of his or her blood and does not undergo immediate surgery, will lead to death.
Lulú was conscious on Saturday and her first words were ‘I made it’.
He was able to summarize the horrific attack in detail. Authorities had already revealed that the girls were swimming in a sandbar at Seacrest Beach, which Lulu confirmed to her mother.
The teenager added that after she was bitten on the hand and then on the leg, the shark bit her friend on the foot.
“Lulu said a man grabbed her other arm and pulled her out and another younger boy helped him carry her to shore,” Ann Blair wrote.
Ann Blair also revealed that two doctors and two young women, one of whom was a nurse, were the ones who put tourniquets on Lulu’s wounds.
‘At this point we will have multiple surgeries in the coming days and our lives will be changed forever. “Lulú is strong, beautiful, brave and many more things that I cannot tell,” she wrote.
On the same day, just four miles away, a 45-year-old Virginia woman, Elisabeth Foley, was bitten by a shark around 1:15 p.m. She suffered significant injuries to her abdominal and pelvic region, requiring her lower back to be amputated. of one of his arms. Fox10TV reported.
Foley is now in stable condition, according to representatives at HCA Florida Fort Walton-Destin Hospital, where she was airlifted on Friday.
A fundraising event organized by his family has already raised more than $36,000 of its $50,000 goal
Elisabeth Foley, the first victim of a shark attack on the Florida Peninsula, pictured left.
The attacks took place within four miles of each other, authorities said.
A 45-year-old woman was bitten by a marine animal in the water near Watersound Way and Coopersmith Lane around 1.15pm on Friday.
As recently as Sunday afternoon, South Walton Fire District lifeguards were still waving warning flags alerting beachgoers to ‘the presence of dangerous marine life.’
‘We encourage all our beach patrons to be aware of the situation in the water today, swim close to a lifeguard, stay hydrated and look out for each other. Please do not underestimate the open waters and marine life that may be present,” the agency wrote on Facebook.
The day before, a sheriff’s office marine beach unit was monitoring the coast near where the attacks occurred.
Agents spotted a 14-foot hammerhead shark near Santa Rosa Beach Saturday morning, which they stressed was not uncommon, in a post on X.
A service for Lulu and McCray’s attacks was held Sunday at their hometown church in Alabama. AL.com reported.
Sheriff’s deputies are pictured monitoring the waters near where the shark attacks took place on Friday.
Officers see a 14-foot hammerhead shark in the water, which they say is not uncommon.
St. Luke’s Episcopal Church was full, according to the report. People filled every pew and even more crowded into an overflow room to show their support for the teens as church officials lit candles in their honor.
The church also said grief counselors would be available for any member of the congregation who felt they needed someone to talk to.
“This great community is behind you,” the Rev. Richmond Webster told the families in attendance.
These attacks come weeks after officials named Florida the shark bite capital of the world.
Daytona Beach in Volusia County, Florida, has had the highest concentration of unprovoked attacks worldwide with 351 since 1837, according to the University of Florida report. International Shark Attack File.
Daytona Beach is approximately 375 miles from where this most recent double shark attack occurred.
Nationally, the United States had the most shark attacks in 2023, with a total of 1,640, followed by Australia with 706.