A TEENAGER who was mauled by a shark recalled the terrifying moment she “raised her arm out of the water and saw she had no hand”.
Lulu Gribbin, 15, was enjoying a beach day in Florida last summer when she lost her arm and leg in the brutal attack.
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She and her family had heard speculation that a shark was in the sea by the beach they were at in Walton County, northwest Florida.
But it wasn’t until the teen saw “a shadow” in the water that panic set in.
She told ABC News: “I never saw a tail or a fin. I never saw its eyes.”
After spotting a “glimpse” of the shark’s body, she initially started swimming as fast as she could.
But after recalling advice she had heard in a movie, she stopped – thinking her frantic movements would encourage the shark to chase her.
It was then that her life would drastically change forever.
She said: “I told everyone to just calm down…and the next thing I know is that I raised my hand out of the water and there just was no hand there.”
Lulu was rushed to the shore where her twin sister, Ellie, sat by her side, keeping her calm and ensuring she remained conscious until paramedics arrived.
Meanwhile, doctors on the beach wrapped a tourniquet around Lulu’s injuries.
Her mom, Ann Blair Gribbin, said she rushed to the beach when her daughter didn’t pick up her phone.
Comparing her child’s injuries to something out of a movie, she said she found her “lifeless” with her “eyes closed, and her mouth white and pale”.
She said: “All I could say was, ‘Just keep breathing. Please keep breathing. God, please let her keep breathing.
“We didn’t know anything, no idea if she was alive.”
The teen was then airlifted to a Pensacola hospital where she underwent multiple surgeries leading to her leg and arm being amputated.
Doctors said she had also lost around two-thirds of the blood in her body.
Following the horror incident, her mom paid tribute to the doctors who saved Lulu’s life.
She also described her daughter as a “miracle” admitting the family’s life will “be forever changed”.
Ann said: “At this point, we will have multiple surgeries in the days to come and our lives will be forever changed.
“She is truly a miracle. We have a long road ahead and our journey is just beginning!”
MULTIPLE ATTACKS
Lulu wasn’t the only victim that day.
According to the teen, there was another shark attack just 90 minutes before just a few miles down the coast.
She said: “If I wouldn’t known about this, I wouldn’t have been in the water”.
Lulu’s friend McCray was also bitten on her foot, and officials suspect the same beast attacked three other people.
This spate of maulings were the first in the county for three years, with the last fatality recorded in Walton County in 2005.
Cops in the area, however, stressed that sharks are always present in the Gulf.
Officers previously said: “Swimmers and beachgoers should be cautious when swimming and stay aware of their surroundings”.
Her brutal attack comes as a little boy was mercilessly savaged off the Florida coast by a blacktip shark earlier this month.
The blacktip shark rushed Richard Burrows, his sister Rose, and his dad, David, as they snorkeled at Horseshoe Reef, about four miles off Key Largo, at around 3 pm on September 1.
Richard was bitten above his right knee and on his arm, leaving him gushing blood in the water as his dad and sister scrambled to help.
David quickly applied a tourniquet to Richard’s leg to stop the bleeding, which doctors later said helped to save his life.
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