UPDATE: Teen shark attack victim coming home
… After 73 days in the hospital!
Readers may remember my story from early June about Mountain Brook, Alabama high school sophomore Lulu Gribbin who was attacked by a shark in the Gulf of Mexico while wading near a sand bar in the beaches of South Walton, Florida.
Lulu Gribbin’s hometown of Mountain Brook, Alabama (a suburb of Birmingham) is planning a giant welcome home ceremony after Lulu spent more than two months in a Pensacola hospital and later a re-hab facility.
Excerpts from an al.com story provide the uplifting details:
“Mountain Brook is planning a welcome home celebration for shark attack survivor Lulu Gribbin on Saturday at 4 p.m.
“Ann Blair Gribbin, Lulu’s mother, gave an update on Aug. 20, saying she will bring LuLu home this week after more than 73 days in hospitals since the June 7 shark attack.
She was one of two Mountain Brook teens injured in one of two shark attacks in a span of 90 minutes along about four miles of beach in Walton County. A 45-year-old woman lost a foot in an attack about an hour-and-a-half before the attack on the two girls.
Lulu has been undergoing physical therapy and learning to use a prosthetic arm and leg.
“The things she has accomplished are mind boggling,” her mother wrote.
Lulu, a University of Alabama football fan, got to meet one of her heroes, former Crimson Tide quarterback Bryce Young, now with the Carolina Panthers.Young gave Lulu a signed football.
“Throughout this journey we have been blessed beyond words, we have the best doctors, friends and support that you can only dream off,” her mother wrote. “We cannot express how thankful we are for everyone!! The hospital tunnel is approaching but the adventure is just beginning!! I love you Lulu!”