Doctors on vacation save 15-year-old victim of shark attack in Florida

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Two doctors were praised for rushing to the aid of a 15-year-old girl who was bitten by a shark on a Florida beach on Friday.

Ryan Forbess and Mohammad Ali were boogie boarding with their children when they noticed people panicking on the shore of Rosemary Beach in Walton County.

“We all ran out of the water,” Forbess told WKRG. “I grabbed my son. He grabbed his daughter. As we approached the beach, I looked to my left and saw the murky red water that was the result of the shark attack.”

The couple rushed to the aid of 15-year-old Lulu Gribbin and her boyfriend McCray Gaust, 17. Gribbin suffered serious injuries to her thigh and hand, while the other girl suffered only minor foot injuries, the outlet reported.

The girls were up to their waist in water when the shark attacked them.

The doctors, trauma nurses and paramedics rushed to help. The team placed tourniquets on Gribbin’s hand and leg and applied pressure to her wounds to stop the bleeding.

“When I looked down at her and saw the severity of the injury, I realized that everyone with medical knowledge had to help,” Ali said.

Most of the physicians who worked together did not know each other. Forbess, a family physician in Alabama, and Ali, an interventional radiologist in Mississippi, visit the area every year with their families.

Still, Forbes said it might just as well be that he has been working with the group of helpers for years.

“It was incredible. Somehow… it was God’s will that everyone was there at the same time to help,” he said.

The couple spoke to the child’s family after he was admitted to hospital and learned that he was expected to survive.

Gibbins’ mother, Ann Blair Gribbin, posted online how her daughter was cared for and described the journey in detail.

“It was our first mother-daughter beach trip and we were all incredibly excited. Our first two days at the beach were amazing, hanging out with friends and going out to eat,” the mom wrote.

She said the family was on their way back to the beach when they heard shouts of a shark sighting and tried to find their daughter, but then panic broke out and the family ran to the beach.

“The beach was full of people just watching. I came across a group of people surrounding someone lying on the ground and looked down. There was Lulu. Ellie found me and said, ‘Mommy, that’s Lulu.’ I saw her wounds on her leg and started screaming,” the mother wrote.

“She was lifeless, her eyes were closed, her mouth was white and pale. The wound on her leg or whatever was left of her leg looked like something out of a movie. I finally made it back to her and held her hand and she saw me and I told her I was there,” Lulu’s mother wrote.

“Her eyes were open. I had no idea how long she had been there or what had happened. Almost immediately the beach truck was there and the paramedics loaded her onto a board, put her back in the truck and rolled her away, she was airlifted away.”

Gibbins’ mother described in detail how her daughter lost her left hand in the attack and had to have part of her right leg amputated.

“I’m not sure who noticed the shark first, but Lulu said it bit her on the hand and then her leg and then attacked her other friend and caught her foot. Lulu said a man grabbed her other arm and pulled her out and another younger boy helped him carry her to shore,” the mother wrote.

“I am eternally grateful to the three surgeons and all the nursing staff and doctors here at this hospital who saved Lulu. I am grateful to the doctors and nurses on the beach that day. I am grateful to the paramedics on the beach and the crew in the air. I am grateful to the man who pulled her out of the water.”

It is not known what type of shark attacked the girls.

About two hours before the incident, a 45-year-old woman was bitten by a shark near WaterSound Beach, less than two miles from Rosemary Beach. The woman was flown to a trauma center with life-threatening injuries to her stomach and arm. Part of her arm had to be amputated.

Walton County Sheriff’s officials spotted a 14-foot-long hammerhead shark near the attack site. They said the shark’s presence in the waters is not unusual.

“We want to reiterate that sharks are always present in the Gulf,” the sheriff’s office said in a written statement. “Swimmers and beachgoers should exercise caution while swimming and be aware of their surroundings.”