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An alligator attack victim in South Carolina thought he was going to die. Here’s how he escaped and survived.
Out of air and pinned by an alligator to the bottom of the Cooper River in South Carolina, Will Georgitis decided his only chance to survive might be to lose his arm. The alligator had fixed its jaws around Georgitis’ arm and after he tried to escape by stabbing it with the screwdriver he uses to pry fossilized shark teeth off the riverbed, the gator shook the diver and dragged him 50 feet down, Georgitis told The Post and Courier.
“I knew I was going to die right then and there,” he told the Charleston newspaper.
The alligator attacked Georgitis on April 15 as he surfaced from his dive, nearly out of air. He put up his right arm to defend his head. The gator latched onto it and Georgitis wrapped himself around the reptile in case it tried to twist the arm.
When the alligator pulled him down to the riverbed, his tank emptied with the gator’s jaws crushing the arm. Georgitis figured he had one last chance.
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“I put my feet up against him just launched back as hard as I possibly could and somehow ripped my arm out and not off,” Georgitis told ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
Georgitis frantically swam to a friend’s waiting boat and was taken to shore and the hospital. His arm was broken and he needed “a ton” of staples to close up the wounds from the alligator’s teeth, he said.
There are probably several surgeries and six months of recovery ahead. His family has set up a page on GoFundMe to raise money to pay his medical bills.
“Every moment from here on out is a blessing to me,” Georgitis told “Good Morning America.”
Georgitis frequently dives looking for shark teeth and other fossils in the waters around Charleston. He has been to the spot where he was attacked at least 30 times and while he has seen alligators before, they usually are sunning or stay far away.
He was stunned this one made a beeline for him as soon as he surfaced.
The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources is aware of the attack and is investigating.
South Carolina has about 100,000 alligators, which are a federally protected species and have strict rules about when they can be removed or killed, wildlife officials said.
Attacks are rare and usually take place on land when alligators attack pets or someone falls into a pond. South Carolina has had at least six fatal alligator attacks since 2016.
Last year, an alligator killed a 69-year-old woman in Hilton Head while she was walking her dog near a golf course lagoon. In 2022, an 88-year-old woman was killed by an alligator in the same county.
A 550-pound alligator attacked and tore off the arm of a snorkeler in 2007 in Lake Moultrie. He staggered ashore looking for help and five nurses at a picnic were able to give him first aid until paramedics arrived.
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A food company known for popular grocery store condiments has recalled a package of tortilla strips that may be contaminated with wheat, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Friday. The product is meant to be gluten-free.
Sugar Foods, a manufacturing and distribution corporation focused mainly on various toppings, artificial sweeteners and snacks, issued the recall for the “Santa Fe Style” version of tortilla strips sold by the brand Fresh Gourmet.
“People who have a wheat allergy or severe sensitivity to wheat run the risk of serious or life-threatening allergic reaction if they consume the product,” said Sugar Foods in an announcement posted by the FDA.
Packages of these tortilla strips with an expiration date as late as June 20, 2025, could contain undeclared wheat, meaning the allergen is not listed as an ingredient on the label. The Fresh Gourmet product is marketed as gluten-free.
Sugar Foods said a customer informed the company on Nov. 19 that packages of the tortilla strips actually contained crispy onions, another Fresh Gourmet product normally sold in a similar container. The brand’s crispy onion product does contain wheat, and that allergen is noted on the label.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration
No illnesses tied to the packaging mistake have been reported, according to the announcement from Sugar Foods. However, the company is still recalling the tortilla strips as a precaution. The contamination issue may have affected products distributed between Sept. 30 and Nov. 11 in 22 states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Washington.
Sugar Foods has advised anyone with questions about the recall to contact the company’s consumer care department by email or phone.
CBS News reached out to Sugar Foods for more information but did not receive an immediate reply.
This is the latest in a series of food product recalls affected because of contamination issues, although the others involved harmful bacteria. Some recent, high-profile incidents include an E. coli outbreak from organic carrots that killed at least one person in California, and a listeria outbreak that left an infant dead in California and nine people hospitalized across four different states, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The E. coli outbreak is linked to multiple different food brands while the listeria outbreak stemmed from a line of ready-to-eat meat and poultry products sold by Yu-Shang Foods.
