A 13-year-old Florida boy speaks out after surviving an attack by an alligator in which the reptile only released his right leg after the teen punched him.
Gabriel Klimis, 13, played with friends at Howell Creek near Orlando last Tuesday.
He jumped off a bridge with a rope to try to cross the creek when he felt something.
“One of my feet was on the sand and then the gator grabbed my other and then pulled me back,” Klimis said.
The gator was hanging by his right leg and Klimis fully understood the danger he was in.
Gabriel Klimis (pictured right), 13, was playing with friends at Howell Creek near Orlando earlier this week when he was attacked by the alligator, pictured here
“I knew if he didn’t let go, he wouldn’t get off because his jaw was so stuck,” he said. “There’s no escaping that.”
“I just felt a tug on me, and I knew from the start what it was…” he said News 6. “I just hit the water and, as if, started pushing it off me.”
Klimis’ response was to punch the gator in an attempt to fight back while holding on to a stick on the shore to avoid being pulled in further.
“He kept pulling so then I just tried to hit him and then he let go and then I ran up as fast as I could,” he said Fox 35.
Klimis quickly ran to the nearest house, where he called his mother, who told him to call 911.
“I was in complete shock,” says Allison Klimis, his mother and doctor herself. “Terror, of course. Very scared.’
However, her 13-year-old son remained calm and told 911: ‘Yes, I can walk. I just got bitten by an alligator.’
“It just stings a little bit, but I’m fine,” Kimis continued, saying he wasn’t “bleeding a lot, but my skin is pretty open.”
Gabriel Klimis survived the gator attack and was even able to strike back at the reptile
Klimis, 13, previously played this with friends at Howell Creek near Orlando
“I was in complete shock,” says Allison Klimis (pictured right), his mother and doctor herself. “Terror, of course. super scared’
Klimis was taken to a local hospital and received stitches to his leg and is expected to make a full recovery
The dispatcher then asked Klimis what had happened to the gator.
“I don’t know,” the boy replied. “I got out of the water as fast as I could.”
Klimis was taken to a local hospital and received stitches to his leg and is expected to make a full recovery.
“At the end of the day, I’m just blessed, thankful, thankful that the angels were watching over him and God was there, because I know without it my son could definitely be gone,” mom Allison added.
Her son says he’s even continuing his outdoor adventures this summer.
Gabriel says the gator attack won’t stop him from having fun with his friends this summer
“It won’t stop me from going swimming somewhere else, like in another creek or something, with my friends and having fun,” he said.
Allison Klimis started with one Gofundme in an effort to raise $15,000 to cover Gabriel’s medical expenses.
The Florida Wildlife Conservation said Thursday they are “pretty sure” they captured the incident’s eight-foot-tall alligator.