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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 his jaws around Georgitis’ arm, and after he tried to escape by stabbing it with the screwdriver he uses to pry fossilised shark teeth off the riverbed, the gator shook the diver and dragged him 15m 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. His tank emptied with the gator’s jaws crushing the arm he put up in defence. Georgitis figured he had one last chance.
Will Georgitis holds up a megalodon tooth he found the day he was attacked by an alligator. Photo / AP
“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. His family have 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 on the back or stay far away.
He was stunned this one made a beeline for him as soon as he surfaced.
Will Georgitis, pictured with a collection of fossils he has found over the years, was attacked by an alligator. Photo / AP
The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources is aware of the attack and is investigating.
South Carolina had about 100,000 alligators, which are a federally protected species, and had strict rules about when they could 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.
A 250kg alligator attacked and tore off a snorkeler’s arm in 2007 in Lake Moultire. He staggered ashore looking for help, and five nurses at a picnic were able to give him first aid until paramedics arrived.
