Alligator bites off arm of late-night swimmer in Okeechobee

[Guest guest]

But of course the swimmer blames the animal. Isn't that what humans do?BY KEONA GARDNER | Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers June 24, 2008

 

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/treasurecoast/sfl-flpgator0624pnjun24,0,4333820.story?track=rss

 

Okeechobee - Kasey Edwards said he never paid "too much

mind" to alligators swimming in canals in Okeechobee

County.

But early Sunday morning, an 11½-foot alligator had his full attention as

Edwards, 18, struggled to free his left arm from the jaws of the

reptile.

"It's a very surreal feeling. You know, feeling like you're about to

die here and you know, praying to God," Edwards said. "I have

to give all the credit to God for keeping me out there."

He got away with his life and the gator with his left arm.

On Monday evening, Edwards was in fair condition at Holmes Regional

Medical Center in Melbourne with his arm severed about 3 to 4 inches

above the elbow. Today, Edwards said, he will have surgery. He hopes to

be out of the hospital by the weekend.

At 2:21 a.m. Sunday, Edwards was hanging out with friends on Nubbin

Slough in Okeechobee County when he told them he was going to swim across

a 25-foot-deep canal, according to an Okeechobee County Sheriff's Office

report.

Edwards had been drinking alcoholic beverages earlier and may have been

impaired, according to witnesses quoted in the report. His friends tried

to persuade him not to do it, the report states.

Halfway through the swim, an alligator approached Edwards and clamped

down on his left arm. Edwards said he knew the next move was the death

roll, when a gator pulls its prey underwater and rolls the victim around

to drown it.

And that's when Edwards said he fought back by grabbing hold of a buoy

line and not letting go. Somewhere in the battle he used the middle

finger on his right hand to poke the reptile in the eye.

That's when Edwards got free, he said, started swimming and realized he

didn't have his left arm. But his main concern was to make it to the east

end of the canal so friends could pull him to safety.

Edwards said his attack shows something needs to be done about the

overpopulation of gators.

"They're not protected creatures. They're nuisance animals," he

said.

Edwards said the credit for his survival and quick thinking goes to God,

friends and emergency personnel.

"I don't care who you are or how strong you think you are. You

aren't going to be able to hold on to a buoy line while an 11½-foot

alligator is trying to pull you underwater," he said. Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight - Albert Schweitzer http://www.myspace.com/fortheanimals7