Man who fought off an alligator that chomped his arm recalls the grim move that helped him escape
A man who survived an alligator attack while out training for an Ironman competition said he managed to escape after gouging its eye.
Jonathan Bruney, 31, was with a group of people training at the Savannah River in the South Carolina city of North Augusta on 23 August when he came face-to-face with a four-to-five-foot long gater.
“We had walked up on the bridge, looked in the water,” Bruney told WRDW.
“I knew there could be a chance of maybe a few alligators here or there, but I would never put my athletes into any sort of danger. And the chances of that are extremely rare.”
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However, things quickly changed shortly after he had started swimming and spotted what he thought was a large log in the water.
“Basically, out of nowhere, it hit me,” he said.
“It was a pretty big impact to my right side … it felt as if my elbow had made a hard impact, maybe like diving on a gym basketball court.”
At this point, he still thought it was a log that he’d hit until he felt a ‘cold pain’ shoot up his arm and he realised that an alligator had chomped down onto his arm.
“I immediately thought, ‘I need to get this off of me,’ because I didn’t want him to spin or death roll and do even more damage,” Bruney said.
So he grabbed the gator’s head, pushed his thumb into the animal’s eye and was able to break free and make it safely to the shore.
Bruney was in shock and bleeding heavily from the bite, but one of his quick-thinking pals was able to make a tourniquet from a piece of cord to help slow the bleeding until first responders arrived.
He was then rushed into hospital where doctors told him he had been lucky and the bite had mainly damaged the skin instead of muscle or fat.
“Once again, it could have been a lot worse,” Bruney said.
“I guess I won the alligator lottery.”
Bruney says he isn’t scared of going back into the water but urged others to be cautious following his ordeal.
In a post on Facebook, the Savannah Riverkeeper said the incident served as a reminder that the water is a living ecosystem.
“The recent alligator attack is a sobering reminder that when we swim in the Savannah, we are entering an ecosystem – one inhabited by fish, turtles, snakes, birds, alligators and a thousand other things that have no particular interest in accommodating us,” it said on Facebook.
“That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t enjoy the river. Quite the opposite. It does, however, mean we should respect it.
“A healthy river is a living river. Just remember you’re a visitor."
What to do if you see an alligator in the wild
Fortunately, alligator attacks are fairly rare and deaths are even less frequent.
To keep safe, if you are approached by an alligator experts recommend:
- Don’t provoke it
- Keep calm
- Back away slowly
- Find higher ground if you can
- Make loud noises
If the alligator attacks:
- Fight back
- Poke or punch the gator in its eyes or nose
Claire Reid