The man survives the alligator’s attack, but with 65 stitches

Port S.T. Lucy, Fla. – Mark Johnson, 61, has lived all his life around alligators. That’s why he was surprised when someone tried to catch him and dragged him into the back canal of his southeastern Port St. Lucy home.

Johnson managed to get the gator out by digging both of his index fingers into the sockets of the hungry reptile’s eyes. Even then, he felt lucky to be alive.

“I’ve always thought that I was caught by Maldhari more than I had the chance to encounter a Rolls-Royce on my morning walk,” said Johnson, a marine artist and native of Florida, who was born and raised in a fox garden near the lake Apopka. “It simply came to our notice then. I would say to Gator, ‘You won’t let me in the water.’ ”

Gator attack

Johnson was walking on the canal with Rex, his 8-year-old gold medalist, at 9:30 a.m. on Sept. 13. He saw the gator floating south past the canal where they were walking. Rex was laying the edge of the water on the grass when Johns saw Gator leaning towards him.

“I descended from the edge of the mud and boomed on the racks to get home. He got out right away, but my crook got stuck in the mud. As I tried to wrap it up for free, I noticed that the gator lunge had come out of the water and grabbed the back of my right knee. “

The attacking force knocked Johnson to the ground. In shock, he turned around and knew he had no chance to open his jaw. But before Gator tried to get into his “death roll” he wanted to act quickly, maybe bend his leg or part of his thigh and cut off his bone. That’s when he reacted to the blink of an eye with his fingers.

Eye to eye

Somewhat to Johnson’s surprise, Gator immediately let go and swam away.

Johnson was hung behind a screen y yard and robbed of blood in his screened porch. The 25-year-old wife, Lou, immediately helped him get into the shower to wrap the wound and wrap a clean towel around it.

They went to St. Lucy Medical Center, where the wound was treated with germs. He suffered 12 puncture injuries to his leg and about 60 stitches and another five in his left index finger, where he cut it on the gator’s eye socket.

He said the pain was so intense, clapping at his feet like jaw teeth. He said the worst pain he had ever experienced was when he set foot twice on a stingraze while fishing in an Indian river lagoon, until S.C.

Johnson said he does not blame the alligator. He was just doing what the alligators do.

“But it’s important for people to understand how dangerous alligators are.” Said John. “If I were a kid or a pet, I wouldn’t have had a chance.”

Johnson said it’s important to keep cool to survive.

“You can’t panic. I also fish bass all the time. I reach down and lift the bass with my hand. I just got lucky. “

News alligator

Jones told his neighbors, the Challengers, to call the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to report the incident.

“You take one (crocodile) out and come up with 10 more people,” Jerry Chanler said. “This is a swamp. We built our houses at Alligators Home in Florida. “

The FWC sent a contracted nuisance trapper to the scene, but they could not find the crocodile.

“Trapper told me I was lucky,” Jones said. “The fingers of the eye socket trick don’t always work,” he said.

He said that when he started walking again, he would probably carry some kind of weapon for defense.