Florida woman survives bite to head from nine-foot alligator
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A woman is lucky to be alive after she was bitten in the head by a nine-foot alligator while snorkeling in Florida waters.
Melissa Carr was at the Alexander Springs Recreation Area in Altoona, Fla., over the weekend, swimming and snorkeling with a friend when the attack happened.
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“I ripped the mask off and I turn and see the two little eyes sticking out of the water,” she told WOFL, adding that the gator came out of nowhere.
Carr’s friend Shane saw the whole thing.
“I just heard a rush of water and I turned around to make sure she was OK. And I just saw the gator,” he told the outlet.
“I saw her head in its mouth.”
Photographs obtained by the outlet show Carr bleeding from her head while the alligator swam in the background.
Carr said it all happened so quickly, she didn’t even realize the alligator had bitten her at all explaining that at the moment, it didn’t hurt.
But once reality kicked in, she felt the pain.
Carr was taken to hospital but she believes the full-face snorkel mask she was wearing was why she was more severely injured.
“Sounds bad, but it biting my head is probably the best place that it could have been because if it would have got my arm, it would have got a better grip on my arm and I could have lost my arm or just like my life in general.”
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She added: “I think I’m genuinely just really, really lucky.”
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission along with a nuisance alligator trapper responded to the scene and the gator was removed from the park.
It was the second alligator incident at the park within the week.
On Nov. 1, a 79-year-old man was also snorkeling and “bumped” into an alligator.
The man was not bitten but did receive a non-life-threatening injury, according to FWC, though the injury was unclear.
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