On Tuesday, June 18, the City of Orange Beach presented Dr. Ryan Forbess, of Orange Beach Family Medicine, a certificate of recognition for his efforts while helping save a teenager's life following a Florida shark attack.

"I used to live in Hawaii," Forbess said. "I've lived in the Cayman Islands. I lived in Miami. I feel like I've lived half my life on the beach, but I've never seen a shark attack. Everybody on the beach just kind of bowed their head and prayed that she made it, and she did."

The 15-year-old Mountain Brook native, Lulu Gribbin (who ultimately lost both her left hand and right leg in the Friday, June 7, encounter), was fortunate to have been surrounded by an assortment of medical professionals as she was pulled from the blood-filled, Seacrest Beach waters. In addition to Forbess and his friend, Dr. Mohammad Ali (an interventional radiologist with Baptist Medical Group in Mississippi), 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 Gribbin struggled to maintain consciousness.

"It could've turned the other way, and we won't talk about that," Councilman Jeff Silvers said. "But I think it was God's path to say, 'We need you.' Thank you for that. That young lady, she's a survivor."

Later on the evening of the attack, a surgery at Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola, Florida, led to the success of the life-saving effort. In a viral photo recently shared on Wednesday, June 12, Forbess was captured taking the time to visit Gribbins as she continues to move through the initial stages of her recovery process.

"On behalf of the mayor and council, we honor and recognize Dr. Ryan Forbess for assisting in the heroic effort in saving the young lady’s life," the certificate states. "We and the Orange Beach community are forever grateful for his selfless actions."