Today a story posted on MSN about an alligator attack on
a teen brought back memories of a similar attack to a very
good friend of my son named Ricky. He along with his brother
Robert and other friends went to swim at the waters of a
drainage channel in alligator alley , the only road through
the Everglades between Miami-Dade and the West coast of
Florida.
Unknown to them there was a gator stoking them in the
water and the gator came between Ricky and the shore to cut
his scape to safety. He tried to fend off the gator with his
arms and the gator bit into both arms. His brother ran to
the car and got a revolver they had in the car and shot the
gator point blank killing it to free the hold on Ricky.
They were far from a hospital, but they got in the car
with Ricky and drove to a Coral Gables hospital where his
arms were treated. Some of the bones had been crushed, but
he regained mobility of the fingers. I was present at the
hospital that evening for long hours till he came out of the
operating room. His whole family is very close to ours.
The point of this post is that the fresh waters of
Florida can be very dangerous. It is for sure that these
attacks happen much more frequent that what the article says
and people should be very careful if they go in the waters
of Florida.
The analogy I want to make is this, people tend to
disregard danger in general and the thought that comes to
mind is that we write articles after articles about the
danger that is looming in the horizon for the whole world
with the approaching Apocalypse and very few take heed of
the warning. Satan is like a roaring lion (gator) seeking
whom to devour and devour he will.
Pay attention to the thinks that are happening around you
and use caution in the things you do.
Nando
Teen who lost arm to gator: ‘I’m happy I’m still alive’
Fred Langdale, 17, used skills he learned from reality TV to
escape animal’s jaws
Below:
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Jump to text With his right arm trapped in the jaws of a
10-foot alligator, a Florida teen cam…
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By Scott Stump
TODAY.com contributor
updated 7/11/2012 9:30:42 AM ET
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With his right arm trapped in the jaws of a 10-foot
alligator, a Florida teen came to a chilling realization as
the animal tried to yank him to the bottom of the river.
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“He started pulling me down, and I knew I either got to
lose this arm or I’m gonna die,’’ Kaleb “Fred” Langdale told
NBC News.
Langdale, 17, lost his right arm below the elbow Monday
after a lazy day of swimming with friends in the
Caloosahatchee River in Moore Haven, Fla., nearly turned
deadly. After the alligator clamped on his right arm as he
tried to swim away, Langdale did his best to mimic what he
has seen professional gator trappers do on reality
television in order to escape.
“I took my left hand and grabbed that skin underneath him
to try to control him, and he just kept going,’’ Langdale
told NBC News. “I pulled his head up and I wrapped my legs
around him and he just went and dove.’’
Though the alligator had torn off a part of Langdale’s
right arm, he was able to summon the energy to swim back to
shore. He put his ravaged arm between his legs to stop the
bleeding before rescue workers arrived. In the aftermath of
the ordeal, Langdale remarkably maintains a positive
outlook.
“I’m just happy that I’m still alive, (and) my buddies
are still alive,’’ he told NBC News. “I could care less
about my arm.”
“He never has a bad outlook on anything,’’ said his
mother, Felinda Langdale. “He told me ‘it’s OK that it was
my right arm because I drive my airboat with my left arm.’”
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Langdale and his friends did not have enough money to gas
up their boat on Monday, so they decided to take a swim in
the river. Langdale said the alligators usually don’t come
near swimmers, but he acknowledged that the river is full of
them. Many residents of Moore Haven learn to swim by going
in the Caloosahatchee River, an official with Moore Haven
Code Enforcement told WBBH-TV in Fort Myers.
“You can’t go 10 feet without seeing a gator,’’ Langdale
told WBBH.
Story: Florida teenager loses part of arm
Langdale said he’s grateful that he was the one attacked.
“I’m glad he chose me instead of one of my friends
because I don’t think they would have done the same thing
and got out of it,’’ Langdale said.
The alligator had previously been tagged as a nuisance
and was scheduled to be captured later that afternoon. Had
Lawndale and his friends waited a few more hours to go into
the water, the animal may have already been removed.
Langdale’s arm was pulled from the gator’s stomach after it
was killed by a trapper, but the limb could not be
re-attached.
Langdale, who is undergoing surgery Wednesday, is
recovering at the Lee Memorial Hospital.
“I feel like I got my arm bit off,’’ Langdale joked after
a nurse asked him how he felt.
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Teen who lost arm to gator: ‘I’m happy I’m still alive’
The attack on Langdale was a rare event, as there have
been only 335 attacks and 22 deaths in the last 64 years in
Florida. Currently, it’s mating season for alligators, which
experts say is the most dangerous time to encounter one.
“It’s not a controlled environment like Disneyland or
something like that,’’ Jeff Ardelean of the Florida Fish and
Wildlife Conservation Commission told NBC News. “It’s not a
theme park. This is wild Florida.’’
Langdale’s mother was not surprised that the youngest of
her three sons took a dip in a river teeming with
alligators.
“I was shocked, but it’s almost like I expected it at
some point,’’ she told WBBH. “Not necessarily the alligator
part — but something happening to Fred.’’
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Langdale’s ordeal has shaken his friends and town
residents, who regularly seek refuge from the heat by taking
a dip in the river.
“Everybody is scared because it is something real that
happened,’’ friend Matt Baker told WBBH. “You see it in the
movies. ‘Oh he got his hand bit off.’ But it’s like – that
fear factor that it actually happened.’’
However, those who know Langdale predict that he will
jump right back in the Caloosahatchee River when he gets a
chance.
“Yeah, that’s a guarantee,’’ Baker told WBBH. “Once Fred
gets out of the hospital, he’ll be the first one in and
everyone else will get back in.’’