Two teenage girls were recently bitten by sharks in the Florida panhandle. McCray Faust suffered damage to her foot, and Lulu Gribbin lost a hand and a leg.
The Gribbin family and their guests visited Seacrest Beach on Friday, June 8th. Lulu’s mother, Ann Blair Gribbin, went to the beach after lunch to see a shark lurking in the water. Authorities and lifeguards from Walton County cleared the area surrounding the water’s edge, and now a crowd had gathered. Ellie, Lulu’s twin sister, approached her at that moment to inform her that Lulu had been the victim of an assault.
The shark attack happened at about 3 pm, and Both girls required tourniquets for their bite wounds. Lulu was taken from the beach and into a waiting helicopter by emergency personnel.
According to Ann Blair, the trip to Pensacola’s Sacred Heart Hospital, where Lulu was flown, took them an hour and twenty minutes. They prayed the whole way there.
Ann Blair was informed by surgeons that Lulus’s left hand had been bit off by the shark and that her right leg had to be amputated above the knee. The attack caused Lulu to lose two-thirds of her blood. If a person loses more than 40% of their blood, it may be fatal, according to experts.
On Saturday, Lulu regained consciousness and described the horrific incident in great detail. A man grabbed Lulu’s other arm and hauled her to safety with the assistance of a younger boy who brought her to the beach.
On the same day, after 1 p.m., a woman (45) from Virginia named Elisabeth Foley was attacked by a shark only four miles away. She had severe injuries to her pelvis and abdomen and had to have the lower half of an arm amputated. She is in stable condition.
Based on data from Florida University’s International Shark Attack File, Daytona Beach, Florida, has experienced 351 unprovoked attacks since 1837, making it the beach with the greatest concentration internationally.
The location of the most recent shark attacks is around 375 miles away from Daytona Beach.
In 2023, there were 1,640 shark attacks in the United States, while 706 occurred in Australia.
