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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.
Sam Greenwood/Getty Images
“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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NEW YORK – The man accused of killing three people when drove drunk into a crowd on the Lower East Side on July 4th was arraigned on a host of charges Saturday.
Daniel Hyden of Monmouth Junction, N.J. is charged with aggravated vehicular homicide, aggravated vehicular assault, manslaughter, assault and operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated charges. Hyden was driving with a suspended license, prosecutors said.
According to prosecutors, Hyden, 44, drove a Ford F-150 pickup truck into the crowd at Corlears Hook Park just before 9 p.m. local time. He allegedly ran through a stop sign at the intersection of Water and Cherry Streets, drove up onto the sidewalk, slammed through the chain link fence, and into the crowd.
Eleven people were killed or injured, prosecutors said. The three people killed have been identified as Lucille Pinkney, 59, and her son Herman Pinkney, 38, and Ana Morel, 43. Another person was critically injured, and seven others hospitalized. The youngest victim was 11, according to prosecutors.
Responding police officers say they found Hyden on the ground next to the driver’s-side door, wearing pants but no shirt or shoes. He had bloodshot eyes, was stumbling and there was “a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage on his breath.”
“I hope we get justice”
Photos provided
On Friday, Family members of the victims returned to the scene, some breaking down in tears.
“I hope we get justice for my brother and my mother,” Diamond Pinkney said. “Herman, I love you. I’m going to do you proud.”
“We’re all devastated with this. It breaks my heart, and I’m so sad about it,” neighbor Nereida Garcia said.
Four people were fatally shot and three people were injured in a mass shooting in Kentucky on Saturday, the Florence Police Department said in a statement.
Officers arrived at a private residence at 2:51 a.m. to see seven people shot – and found out the suspect had fled the scene in his car. Police said they located the fleeing suspect and tried to nab him during a traffic stop, but he continued to drive.
A chase ensued, police said, and only ended when the suspect’s car drove into a ditch off the roadway. The suspect was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said.
Three of the victims were taken to UC Health Hospital. They are currently listed in critical but stable condition, officials said.
Everyone was attending a birthday pool party, Florence Church of God, a local church, posted on its social media. One of their congregation’s sisters asked for prayers for her friend whose daughter was killed in the shooting.
“A man came in uninvited on a birthday pool party and killed four people,” the church’s Pastor Campbell wrote.
One of them was a friend’s daughter, the pastor wrote, and “her granddaughter is in the hospital with gunshot wounds.”
This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.