Imagine going outside to take a quick sprinkle but a wild animal takes a wild bite of your arm! Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened to one Florida man.
According to local reports, it all happened on Sunday as 23-year-old Englewood resident Jordan Rivera wandered behind Bandito’s Bar in Port Charlotte to relieve himself, shortly after closing time. However, while peeing, he fell into a pond and was immediately attacked by a 10-foot alligator.
Though giant gator bit off his right arm just above the elbow. Luckily that’s all the gator took as Rivera was saved by bystanders who pulled him out and quickly. Speaking from the hospital bed, Rivera says he doesn’t really remember anything. “So I ended up walking over to the water hole, I didn’t realize how big it was at the time, as I was going over there something happened where I either tripped or the ground below me just went down,” said Rivera to the station. “I ended up in the water. And that’s literally the last thing I remember.” He said the next time he opened his eyes, all he saw was the sight of hospital equipment. It was then he found out the gator ate his arm. “Confusion. I was like ‘Whoa’. Because I just woke up and I was just sitting here. And I looked over and I saw my arm the way it was and I was like, ‘Whoa,’” he said. “It kind of feels like my arm is just there, but not there.”
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After the crazy incident, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said it hired a professional alligator trapper, who located the 10.5-foot alligator at the same location where Rivera was attacked. Officials removed the alligator from the pond and euthanized the animal.
Speaking to WZVN, Rivera’s mother credits bystanders for saving her son’s life after noticing his body near the pond and rushing to help. “I call them angels that were there that saved his life,” Teresa Rivera told the outlet. “The chance of someone being there with a tourniquet to me is a miracle that he’s here.”
When asked about online rumors that he might have tried to feed the alligator, prompting the attack, Rivera completely denied that being the reason, adding that the nearby bar doesn’t even offer food that he could have fed the gator.
Rivera is still recovering in the hospital with his arm amputated, but he is staying optimistic about it all.
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