Shark Attack Survivor’s Harrowing Discovery: The Moment She Realized Her Twin’s Hand Was Gone

Here’s a question for you: what’s scarier—a day at the beach bitten by a shark or realizing you just lost a limb in a split second? Last year, twin sisters Ellie and Lulu Gribbin were simply chasing the seaside thrill of collecting sand dollars in Florida when their vacation took a heart-stopping turn. Imagine spotting a shark underwater and suddenly having to swim like your life depends on it—because, well, it does. Ellie recalls the ocean turning a haunting shade of red as Lulu suffered devastating injuries in a brutal attack that changed their lives forever. But amidst the chaos and heartbreak emerged something powerful—Lulu’s incredible resilience, culminating in the creation of the Lulu Strong Foundation, dedicated to supporting amputees and raising awareness about prosthetics. It’s a story that grabs you by the heart and doesn’t let go. Ready to dive deeper? LEARN MORE

Warning: This article contains discussion of injuries which some readers may find distressing.

Last year twin sisters Ellie and Lulu Gribbin had been enjoying a holiday to Florida when they took a mother-daughter trip to the beach with their family.

They went out swimming in the sea to collect a type of sea urchin known as sand dollars, and while swimming the 15-year-old twins spotted a shark.

Ellie told ABC 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 ocean.

“The entire ocean is red, ocean waves bring the blood closer,” she said in her account of the shark attack, saying that when she went back to help Lulu out of the water she saw that her sister had lost one of her hands.

Someone else at the beach was carrying Lulu out of the water when Ellie realised that her twin sister was missing a hand, describing what she saw as ‘just a limb of flesh, blood, and muscle’.

Twin sisters Ellie and Lulu Gribbin were swimming off the coast of Florida last year when a shark attacked (NBC)

“I immediately see that not only her hand was gone but basically her whole leg,” she said.

“I can see her whole thigh bone and there is barely any muscle left, I don’t even think her foot was still there, but I do not remember.”

Lulu later said that she remembered being on the shore with Ellie holding her hand and holding her eyes open until paramedics arrived and got her into an ambulance.

The twin had suffered shark bites on her hand and leg and was rushed to hospital to undergo emergency surgery.

Once she was out of surgery the sisters hugged, but Lulu had to undergo further surgeries and now has a prosthetic arm and leg to take the place of the limbs she lost in the shark attack.

Lulu was airlifted to hospital and rushed into emergency surgery, she’s since started a foundation to help amputees (South Walton Fire District)

Ellie said she returned to the beach on the night of the shark attack and said it was ‘like a ghost town’ out there as people were scared following the attack.

She has decided not to swim so far out from shore again, thinking that if the attack had happened further out they would likely have died.

Since the shark attack, Lulu Gribbin has set up the Lulu Strong Foundation which seeks to provide support to other amputees and their families along with providing education and awareness around matters such as prosthetic limbs and possible solutions.