Dr. Ryan Forbess, of Orange Beach Family Medicine, didn't expect to double as hero on his family vacation, but who does exactly?

On Friday, June 7, Forbess and Dr. Mohammad Ali (an interventional radiologist with Baptist Medical Group in Mississippi) took their families out to enjoy a routine beach day of boogie boarding in Seacrest Beach, Florida, when screams rang out and a call to action changed plans entirely.

In what early on many believed was just an alert to a shark in the water, Forbess proceeded to ensure the safety of the wives and children before waters started to fill with blood as 15-year-old Mountain Brook native Lulu Gribbin was being pulled from an attack.

Following her encounter with the shark, Gribbin, who ultimately lost both her left hand and right leg, was fortunate to have been surrounded by an assortment of medical professionals. In addition to Forbess and Ali, there just so happened to be trauma experts, paramedics, even an anesthesiologist in the area, among others, who all stepped up to help apply tourniquets and slow the significant blood loss as this young teen struggled to maintain consciousness.

"It was a pretty horrific tragedy," Forbess told FOX Weather in a national interview. "But I'm glad that she survived. I do think it was kind of the grace of God that we all had a medical team of people there."

Later that same evening of the attack, still unaware of the situation's outcome at the time, Forbess was finally able to speak with Gribbin's mother on the phone after a surgery at Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola, Florida, led to the success of this life-saving effort. In a viral photo shared on Wednesday, June 12, Forbess was captured visiting Gribbin as she continues to move through the initial stages of her recovery process.

"Thank you, Dr. Ryan Forbess of Orange Beach Family Medicine," the City of Orange Beach wrote on Facebook. "This life-saving act is one that makes all of us in the Orange Beach community proud. You are certainly our very own local hero."