MOBILE, Ala. (WKRG) — A Mobile nurse jumped into action to help a girl who was attacked by a shark last month.
The attack happened on June 7, 2024, in Walton County near Rosemary Beach.
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Fifteen-year-old Lulu Gribbin of Mountain Brook, Alabama, was attacked by a shark while swimming with friends and family.
Nurse Delanie Quinnelly Richardson, with USA Health Children’s and Women’s Hospital, believes it was divine intervention she was there.
As a busy nurse in the maternity ward at the hospital, Richardson looked forward to a girl’s weekend in June.
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She was attending a bachelorette party for her sister-in-law on Highway 30A at Seacrest Beach, Florida. They planned on enjoying the clear water and relaxing waves.
However, her serene weekend abruptly changed.
She and her party were out in the water when she decided to return to shore. As she waded, she couldn’t believe what she saw.
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“And I turned around, and that’s whenever I saw just the swimming pool size amount of blood that was in the middle of the water,” Richardson said.
She ran toward a young girl who had been bitten by a shark and was badly injured.
“I basically just zoned out,” Richardson said. “I dissociated, and I just started sleepwalking towards the scenario.”
That young girl was Lulu Gribbin, a 15-year-old, who was at the beach with her family. Several men including two doctors, saw the attack and dragged the young girl to shore.
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“And I just remember, ‘What can I do on this beach right now to prepare for whenever they bring her in?'”
Richardson saw Gribbin’s hand was missing, so she grabbed a drawstring from a man’s bathing suit to use as a tourniquet for her arm.
“Because I’m a nurse, I knew that the amount of blood in the water did not match just her hand,” Richardson said. “And so I remember praying like, please let it be something that she can live with, something that she can survive, that she can make it through this. And so meanwhile, I’m trying to find a tourniquet. I am trying to find anything I possibly can.”
She realized the young girl’s leg also had been badly injured. So while others focused on that, she tied the drawstring around Gribbin’s arm to stop the bleeding.
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“I got my education. If it’s not tied, it’s not working,” Richardson said. “They’re going to beg you to take it off. And you have to leave it on to save their life. It’s better to have a missing limb than to lose your life. And so that was just echoing in my head as I was inflicting more pain on this, this sweet little child that had just been just torn apart.”
The others placed a cooler strap tourniquet on Gribbin’s leg, and they all prayed as they waited for the paramedics.
“I remember asking her, I’m like, ‘What’s your name?’ I wanted to see if, you know, if she was with it enough that she would remember her name,” Richardson said. “And she said, with all her might, she said in a whisper. She said, ‘Lulu.’ I truly thought that she was going to die on the beach that day.”
Richardson had only been a nurse for nine months when the attack happened. She works on the fifth floor at USA Health Children’s and Women’s Hospital taking care of moms and babies.
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In fact, in nursing school, she only spent one day in the emergency room studying trauma. She proved that her instincts for nursing can take over.
“It just was second nature to me, just walking towards her and doing everything that I can because that’s how I would want somebody to treat me,” Richardson said. “If that was my sister on the beach, I’d want somebody to do that.
“I’d want somebody, anybody who’s a medical professional, whether you’re a mother, baby nurse or whether you’re a trauma nurse, whether you’re a retired or nurse, whether you’re whoever, whatever specialty walk, background, whatever, if you can help, I’d want someone to do the same for me.”
Earlier this month, Richardson had the opportunity to visit LuLu in the hospital in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the flood of emotions hit her.
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“I remember being like, ‘Can I please hug you?’ That’s whenever I started crying,” Richardson said. “This feeling like the warmth of her body and being able to feel her, you know, up against me and be able to hug her and her wrapping her arm around me and just feeling that she’s healthy, and she’s alive, and she’s made it.”
Richardson feels forever connected to Lulu and her family, and while the trauma of that day has hit her hard, she also feels relief to know she played a part in saving the teenager’s life.
“The fruits of my labor, you know, as a nurse behind the scenes, just, you know, working my night shifts while everybody else is sleeping,” Richardson said. “It’s just been so great to be able to know that I have helped her live and that I can help her live her life. Though it’s different. It’s going to be different. But she’s different, and she’s amazing.”
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This young nurse does not want to be called a hero but no doubt she was a hero for Lulu Gribbin.
To hear Richardson’s entire interview unedited, watch it below.
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