Dr. Ryan Forbess Treats Patient After Shark Attack

Two Mountain Brook, Alabama teens are recovering after a brutal shark attack at Rosemary Beach in Walton County, Florida. The Birmingham area and communities beyond have been offering their support for the girls.

Dr. Ryan Forbess, a McKenzie High School graduate, practices family medicine in Orange Beach, and his friend Dr. Mohommad Ali is an interventional radiologist in Jackson, Mississippi. Their families were vacationing when it happened last week.

Both men were enjoying some down time in the ocean with their children when they heard a commotion that was happening not too far from them. All of a sudden, people were rushing out of the water.

Forbess told WVTM 13’s Jarvis Robertson that he quickly got his son out of the water just to be safe. Once back to the shore, he turned around and saw bloody water.

There was plenty of panic and screams to be heard, but there were also brave men and women ready to answer the call of someone in need.

Fifteen-year-old Lulu Gribbin’s condition did not look good at that moment, but that didn’t stop bystanders from doing what they knew to do.

“We were able to start getting tourniquets ready, getting her bleeding to stop,” Forbess said. “Basically providing care until first responders got there.”

Trauma isn’t his everyday routine. However, his formal training undoubtedly made a difference.

“You review in your mind your ABCs: airway, blood, circulation, trying to control these things that you’ve learned in trauma before,” Forbess said.

Along with the Alabama doctor and his friend the radiologist, there just so happened to be a trauma nurse and EMT right there helping out.

“Everybody was just random people on vacation, we all kind of jump in together. It was pretty amazing,” Forbess said.

Gribbin suffered significant injuries to one upper and one lower extremity, both of which required tourniquets. She was airlifted to Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola, where she remains in critical condition. She would later lose her left hand and part of her right leg.

The second teen, McCray Faust, received a “flesh wound” to her right foot. On Saturday, Beach Safety Director for the South Walton Fire District David Vaughn told CNN the person who suffered minor injuries had been discharged from the hospital.

Forbess is a McKenzie and University of Tennessee graduate. He previously worked at Bethel University’s Physician Assistant program as a professor. He now owns his own medical clinic in Orange Beach. Forbess and wife, Toni, have three children.

He is the son of Bob and Donna Forbess and brother to Julia Kirkland and Amanda Fortune.