A Florida woman was with a group of swimmers on August 8 in the Silver River near Ocala when she noticed a large alligator coming toward her. The gator grabbed her right arm and took her down violently.
Mike Head was on the river paddleboarding when he witnessed the attack. He rushed over to help the woman.
“It was almost like a missile, and it would just kind of… I could just see the back of it,” Head told Fox35.
“I couldn’t swing because I knew I was going to hit her in the head from my position, so I come around the other side, and then I swing, because I can see it still, and I don’t know if I hit it or not. I just know that it was gone after I hit.”
John Gamache and his father were in their boat nearby eating lunch when they heard the commotion. They saw the alligator and ran their boat directly toward it, which apparently helped scare it away.
When they got to the woman her arm was horribly mangled and bleeding badly. They used a boat rope as a tourniquet to slow the blood loss.
“It’s a disturbing situation,” Head told Fox35. “My boys are right here… I get the rope, pull it over, tie it around once. She literally turns… she’s looking at me, and she’s like, ‘tie it tight.’”
The father and son helped get other swimmers and the woman out of the water. Then they ran their boat to shore where they met emergency personnel who attended to the unnamed woman and transported her to a hospital.
The woman had to have her arm amputated at the hospital following the gator attack. According to her family, she was recently released from the hospital and is now recuperating at home.
The day after the attack, Florida officials captured and removed a 9-foot, 8-inch gator from the Silver River – the reptile they believe was the one that mangled the woman’s arm.
This year has been a terrifying one for gator attacks around the Sunshine State. No fewer than five attacks have been reported in recent months, plus several incidents where pets have been attacked by gators.
On June 21 in the Rainbow River near Dunnellon, Florida, a 19-year-old snorkeler was attacked by an 8-foot gator that grabbed the man around his head and neck inflicting deep cuts, serious bleeding, and severe injuries. The young man was transported to a local hospital that day, where he was treated and released the following day. Florida alligator trappers captured and removed the large 8-foot, 3-inch gator from the Rainbow River.
On June 27 Brodie Dituri, age 11, was releasing a fish he’d caught at Nelson’s Fish Camp near Umatilla and the upper Ocklawaha River in Marion County. While he was releasing the fish an 8-foot alligator lunged at the youngster, grabbing his right hand. His father quickly helped his son, preventing the gator from pulling the youngster under the water. But the alligator began to roll, breaking the boy’s bones and severing his hand. He has since recovered and returned home from the hospital.
State authorities later captured and euthanized a nearly 9-foot alligator responsible for Brodie’s attack.
On June 28 near Orlando, 31-year-old Brittany Clark from Sacramento, California, was mauled by a large alligator. Clark was swimming in the Econlockhatchee River during a break from hiking with some friends in the Little Big Econ State Forest outside Orlando.
A huge alligator bit Clark on both her arms while she was in 3 feet of water. Her friends called authorities and attempted to save her but she died while being transported to a local hospital.
Following Clark’s attack, state wildlife officers captured and killed 12-foot and 13-foot alligators in the area where the attack occurred.
The evening of July 3 James McMicken, age 71, was fishing in a canal behind his home in North Fort Myers, Florida, when a large alligator lunged at him from the water, latched onto his right leg and dragged him into the canal.
The reptile rolled down the bank and into the water and only when McMicken poked his thumb in the creature’s eye did it release him. He struggled back to his home where his wife attended to his severely wounded right leg. He was transported to a hospital in Cape Coral, and he has since recovered.
Florida wildlife experts caution all those in and around the water to be mindful of alligators throughout the state. Spring and early summer are the most likely times for gator attacks because of their mating and nesting seasons. But alligators can be a danger to people and pets anytime and almost anywhere in Florida.
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