Alabama teenager Lulu Gribbin, who survived a life-changing shark attack in 2024, appeared on ABC’s Good Morning America on Wednesday with her family to share her story, now over a year after she was attacked by a shark off Seacrest Beach in Walton County, Florida last June.

Gribbin, now 15, sat down with co-anchor Michael Strahan to share her story.

“I just remember seeing this big brown shadow, I just turned around and just started swimming as fast as I could,” she recalled of the June 2024 day in Florida when she was attacked while on a beach trip with her twin sister, Ellie, and mother, Ann Blair.

Gribbin shared the details of that frightening day, but she also emphasized how her recovery in the months since has become the true story. After losing her left hand and right leg, she spent more than two months at OrthoCarolina’s Limb Loss Recovery Center in Charlotte, undergoing pioneering procedures.

Dr. Bryan Loeffler, one of her surgeons, explained the advanced technique used in her care.

“The nerve endings are reassigned to muscles within the limb and treat pain within the limb that’s still there. But it also can help with a patient when they’re trying to control an electric prosthetic.”

She also became one of the first patients to take part in investigational virtual reality therapy designed to ease phantom limb pain. “A lot of patients describe they feel like their hand is still there, and it’s in a tight fist, and it won’t let go, or it’s like burning pain,” said Dr. Glenn Gaston.

“What we’ve done is taken a lot of the science behind phantom limb pain and worked to package that into a headset that’s super immersive, and it makes the patients see their hands again, and walks them through opening and closing their hands again.”

Back home in Alabama, Lulu has refused to let her injuries define her. She’s back on the golf course, adapting with a prosthetic and custom attachment.

“So there’s a golf attachment. This hand comes off, and then I attach a golf attachment. And I also have a crutch system, so I have crutches. So sometimes I’ll play golf with one leg, or sometimes I’ll play with my prosthetic and this leg,” she told Strahan.

Her drive has pushed her even further.

She’s returned to slalom water skiing and has recently begun running with a specialized prosthetic. On GMA, she shared her next ambition.

“I hope to be in the Paralympics for track.” When Strahan encouraged her by saying, “Well, you’ve achieved all the other goals that you’ve had, so why not this one?” Lulu smiled and answered, “Why not?”

Her journey has sparked a broader mission. Gribbin is advocating for “Lulu’s Law,” a proposed federal alert system modeled after an Amber Alert that would notify beachgoers in real time if a shark attack occurred nearby.

“Before my attack, there was another shark attack 90 minutes before me, just a few miles down the coast. So, if I would’ve known about this, I would not have been in the water,” she said. This summer, the bill was unanimously approved in the U.S. Senate, and it is now waiting for passage in the U.S. House of Representatives.

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She is also launching the Lulu Strong Foundation to expand access to advanced treatments, such as the virtual reality program she benefited from.

Her mother, Blair, emphasized their goal: “We feel like the virtual reality for the leg would help other amputees, so really more innovation and research within technology for the amputee space. Lulu had such a different experience than most do. So we wanna take that to others.”

Through it all, Lulu credits her family and faith for giving her the strength to move forward. “I think knowing that I have a large support system behind me, and just continuing to get better, not only for myself, but for them, and just show them that anything is possible,” she said. “And just knowing that God decided to save me, and so just showing him that he performed a miracle on the right person.”

Gribbin’s story of thriving while surviving has inspired her community in Alabama and beyond.

Sherri Blevins is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You may contact her at [email protected]