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Lulu Gribbin Returns to Attack Site, Credits Rescuers as She Details Recovery

She credits three off-duty medics on the beach with keeping her alive.

Overview

  • The Alabama teen was attacked in June 2024 at a Walton County beach in Florida, with reports describing the shark as a bull shark.
  • Bystander Stephen Beene punched the shark to release her, and strangers carried her to shore where three medical professionals improvised tourniquets and stabilized her.
  • She lost roughly two-thirds of her blood and suffered a severed femoral artery before surgeons amputated most of her right leg and her left hand.
  • Her recovery included targeted muscle reinnervation and virtual reality therapy during 77 days of rehabilitation, after which she walked out on a prosthetic leg.
  • Her family started the Lulu Strong Foundation and supported passage of Lulu’s Law in Alabama, an alert system for shark attacks, as she sets new athletic goals including the Paralympics.