Survivors of last week's unusual flurry of shark attacks in Florida's Walton County are recovering from amputations and other severe injuries. A 45-year-old woman and two teenage girls were injured in separate attacks striking within hours of each other on Friday. In the days that followed, all of the victims were said to be recovering from their injuries.
Ann Blair Gribbin, mother of 15-year-old victim Lulu Gribbin, shared an on her daughter's condition and her first words after being taken off a ventilator to the website CaringBridge on Sunday. "[Surgeons said] that the shark had bitten off Lulu's left hand and that they had to amputate her right leg halfway up from her knee to her hip," Gribbin wrote. "She also had lost 2/3 of the blood in her body.
Of course, no one wants that for your child but she is alive." "Saturday ..
. She did so well that they ended up taking the tube out of her throat and she was breathing on her own," she added. "This was a first big step.
Once she was settled her first words to us were 'I made it.' And boy she did." Gribbin went on to say that Lulu described the attack while recovering in the hospital, saying that the shark "bit her hand and then her leg" as she and five friends were wading near a sandbar looking for sand dollars.
The shark then bit the foot of Lulu's 17-year-old friend before strangers came to their rescue. Officials said that the friend suffered "minor injuries on one of her feet," according to affiliate WTVR. "Lulu said a man .
