A courageous paddleboarder has recounted his intense encounter as he valiantly battled to protect a swimmer from an alligator’s fierce attack on a Florida river.
Mike Head was enjoying a day on the water with his family when he noticed the reptile charging toward a woman like a torpedo in the Silver River, located in Marion County, as he detailed to Fox 35.
When he arrived at the scene, the alligator had already clamped its jaws around the woman’s arm, prompting him to use his paddle in an attempt to fend off the creature, he explained.
“I couldn’t swing because I risked hitting her head from where I was positioned, so I maneuvered to the other side,” Head recounted.
“Once in place, I swung, unsure if I made contact with the gator or not. I just know that it vanished immediately after,” he added.
The woman was then pulled to the shore with the help of another boater and Head said that when he tied her bleeding wound off with a rope, she turned to him and said “Tie it tight”.
Relatives told Fox 35 the victim is back at home recovering and in good spirits despite having her right arm amputated.