A horrifying video has surfaced that was taken just moments after a 10.5-foot alligator ripped Jordan Rivera’s arm off while he was taking a leak in a pond behind a bar in Florida because the bathroom line was too long, showing him writhing in pain on the ground while others worked to save his life.
(Video Credit: WPLG Local 10)
The 23-year-old can be seen rolling in pain in the mud surrounding the pond outside Banditos in Port Charlotte, just north of Fort Myers, during the early morning hours on Sunday.
A group of people came across Rivera who was splashing in the pond and yelled at him, “Get the f*** out of the water!” The person taking the video then says that Rivera was bitten by the alligator and that “his whole arm came off.”
As Rivera was going into shock, another man began pulling him by his left arm as someone else repeated, “Get him the f*** out of the water!” A man started applying a tourniquet to the wound using a belt to keep him from bleeding to death.
While that was happening, Rivera began to scream in pain. A man tried to quiet him and told him, “I know it’s going to hurt but I gotta stop the bleeding.”
(Video Credit: Daily Mail)
The man applying the tourniquet told Rivera that his brachial artery, which is a major blood vessel supplying blood to numerous parts of the body, had been injured.
As the man did what he had to do to save his life, Rivera continued to scream in pain. A woman told him to “stay calm” and another person said, “You’re good brother, you’re good brother.”
Someone off-camera spoke with a 911 operator and told them that a tourniquet was being applied to the wound.
“I’ve got a tourniquet on. They need to f***ing get here… they need to get here,” the man told the operator.
Others at the scene told Rivera to stay awake with one person calling him a “soldier.” The video ended with Rivera being taken away on a stretcher to a waiting ambulance.
Rivera told NBC2 from his hospital bed on Monday that he doesn’t remember much of the attack.
“I didn’t lose my life, I lost an arm, it’s not the end of the world. As I was going over there something happened where I either tripped or the ground below me just went down. I ended up in the water. And that’s literally the last thing I remember,” he recounted.
(Video Credit: NBC News)
“I call them angels, that were there, that saved his life. The chance of someone being there with a tourniquet, to me, it’s a miracle that he’s here,” his mother Teresa Lessa commented.
“The first thing I would do is shake the man’s hand,” Rivera said referring to the man who applied the tourniquet.
Manny Hidalgo, who witnessed the attack and came to the rescue of Rivera, told The Daily Sun, “He was yelling and swimming toward the shoreline. I ran and dragged him up onto the sand. I was scared to get close to the water because it was dark out. I don’t know if it was a mama gator trying to save her young, or a daddy gator trying to feed his family … but the guy was very lucky.”
Rivera was airlifted to Gulf Coast Hospital in Fort Myers. His arm could not be saved according to spokesman Todd Dunn who is with Charlotte County Fire and EMS.
“In the early morning of May 21, Jordan Rivera was at a busy bar in Fort Meyers, Florida. The bathroom lines were long that he decided to look around for a space outside. “Something happened where I ended up in the water. And that’s literally the last thing I remember.” pic.twitter.com/3merRXELRD
— Scotts Opinion Shack (@ScottsOpShack) May 24, 2023
Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC) used a nuisance alligator trap to catch the 10.5-foot beast. It was then put down.
Rivera’s family has set up a GoFundMe page that has raised $16,915 of its $50,000 goal at the time of this writing. Doctors still need to perform another procedure on Rivera to make sure his arm is free of bacteria passed onto him by the alligator’s teeth.
According to the Daily Mail, “Florida has a population of 1.3 million alligators across its 67 counties, and they can be found in most freshwater bodies and occasionally in salt water.”
Authorities are warning Floridians to be vigilant as alligators become more active in the spring and summer months.
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