Boater Saves Woman From Alligator After Arm Lost In Attack

A Florida woman lost her right arm during a terrifying alligator attack Saturday, yet a nearby boater likely saved her life. The victim was swimming with friends on the Silver River near Ocala when she spotted a gator approaching. She tried to push it back using a paddle, but the animal grabbed her arm and dragged her beneath the surface.

John Gamache happened to be eating lunch on his boat with his father just upriver. He heard the commotion immediately. "I looked just upriver from us a couple hundred feet and saw an alligator head way above the water and going full speed towards the swimmers," Gamache told FOX 35 Orlando.

Gamache raced toward the group in his vessel. The approaching boat apparently scared the gator away before he reached them. What he found was gruesome. "It was a terrible injury, bones poking out, blood everywhere. Obviously, the minutes mattered," he said.

The woman was losing blood rapidly. Gamache used rope from his boat to tie off her injured arm while his father helped pull the other swimmers onto the vessel. They rushed everyone back toward a nearby boat launch where first responders were waiting. The victim's family told FOX 35 on Sunday that she survived, left the hospital, and was now recovering at home.

Gamache later spoke with the woman's family after hearing they had talked earlier. "They called earlier, and we talked for a while, and it was heartwarming to hear them explain their emotions," he said. "We're glad that it happened as good as it could have. Like the result is just the sustained injury and nothing more."

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation officers later located and removed the 9-foot-8-inch gator. Officials reopened the area on Sunday. This incident comes just about a month after another Florida woman lost her arm in an attack that proved fatal. Brittany Clark, 31, was hiking with her boyfriend and best friend at Little Big Eco State Forest near Orlando in early July when they entered the Econlockhatchee River to cool off.

They were kneeling in roughly three feet of water when an alligator attacked Clark and bit both of her arms, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Clark's boyfriend, Chance Allison, fought to free her from the animal while calling 911. One arm was severed and the other nearly torn off. Clark died before rescuers could get her to a hospital. Allison later remembered Clark as "the strongest and most outgoing person" he had ever known and said she loved spending time on the water.