Jordan Rivera.Photo:NBC News/Youtube
NBC News/Youtube
The incident took place at 1:40 a.m. local time, authorities said. Rivera was transported to Gulf Coast Hospital in Fort Myers where his right arm was amputated just above the elbow, a spokesman for Charlotte County Fire and EMS told theAssociated Press.
Rivera claims not to remember the attack, only the moment right before and afterwards. He woke up in hospital, and has a surprisingly positive outlook about the incident despite his serious injury.
“I didn’t lose my life, I lost an arm," Rivera toldNBC affiliate WBBHin Fort Myers, speaking from his hospital bed. “It’s not the end of the world.”
Rivera partially lost his right arm in the alligator attack.Photo © Bonish Photography / iStockphoto.
“Those gators, I didn’t truly understand them until I woke up in the hospital and, ‘Oh, gator got your arm,' " he said. “They got my elbow. So, I don’t have an elbow.”
Rivera added: “I can still move my arm around and whatnot.”
The Florida native shared to WBBH that he had gone outside after refusing to wait in line for the bathroom in the bar, and must have “either tripped or the ground below me just went down” as he “ended up in the water.”
“That’s literally the last thing I remember,” Rivera stated.
He recalls feeling “confusion” when he woke up after the accident. “I was like ‘Whoa,' " he told the outlet. “Because I just woke up and I was just sitting here. And I looked over and I saw my arm the way it was and I was like, ‘Whoa.’ "
“It kind of feels like my arm is just there, but not there,” he said.
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A spokesperson for Charlotte County Fire & EMS said of the incident: “The responding crew treated a male patient who had an above the elbow amputation of his upper right extremity. Bystanders applied a tourniquet to the patient before we arrived. The patient was airlifted to Gulf Coast Medical Center in Ft. Myers.”
Teresa Lessa, Rivera’s mother, shared her relief at her son being alive, despite the “traumatic” experience, tellingWBBH: “That’s the best thing, is that I have him. Yes, arm gone, very traumatic. But he’s here.”
Rivera described the incident as being “almost out of a movie,” and spoke of his gratitude to those who helped him and brought him to safety.
“I call them angels that were there. That saved his life,” Lessa said. “The chance of someone being there with a tourniquet, to me, it’s a miracle that he’s here.”
source: people.com
