South Carolina diver reveals how he fought off a huge alligator with a SCREWDRIVER after the beast pulled him to the bottom of the river and ‘shook him like a rag doll’ just as his tank ran out of air
- William Georgitis was attacked by the alligator in the Cooper River
- He escaped by stabbing it in the eye and mouth with a screwdriver
- The attack left him with a broken and dislocated arm, which required nine screws
A South Carolina diver has revealed how he used a screwdriver to fight off a ‘huge’ alligator after the beast pulled him to the bottom of a river just as his tank of air was about to empty.
William Georgitis narrowly escaped with his life after the huge reptile attacked him on April 15.
The fossil hunter was at his usual spot in the Cooper River when he spotted the alligator coming toward him.
He realized the creature was about to roll him over, so he grabbed it in a bear hug.
“I took my screwdriver that I use at the bottom of the river, and I stuck it in his eye, and when I did that, he shook me like a rag doll. Threw me off him, I grabbed him because I didn’t want him to roll again,” he said WCBD TV.
William Georgitis fought a ‘huge’ alligator with a screwdriver after the beast pulled him to the bottom of a river just as his air tank was about to empty
He barely escaped with his life after the huge reptile attacked him on April 15
The fossil hunter was at his usual spot in the Cooper River when he spotted the alligator coming toward him
His arm was still firmly wedged in the alligator’s powerful jaws as he plunged 50 feet underwater, taking Georgitis with him.
“That’s when he took me to the bottom, and I could tell because my ears started popping and it got really black, and I hit the bottom with my shoulders and my neck and I felt his weight pressing down on me,” he said.
‘I couldn’t reach his eye anymore, so I went to his gum line and tried to put it between the teeth where the soft spots were, and that seemed to work. He shook me again, pretty hard down there, and that’s when I ran out of air.”
The experienced diver was sure he was about to die.
“I knew at that moment that it was the end of my life,” he said.
But miraculously he was able to pull out his arm and start pushing towards the surface.
‘I just thought I’d torn it off and when I got back to the surface it flopped down, hanging like a wet noodle. The man in the boat dragged me along. I couldn’t pull myself up,” he explained.
He was eventually pulled from the water at Bushy Park Boat Landing before being rushed to hospital.
Georgitis was left with horrific stab wounds to his arm, as well as a broken and dislocated arm that surgeons were able to repair with nine screws.
Georgitis was likely attacked by an American alligator, the only species native to South Carolina
Georgitis was left with horrific stab wounds to his arm, as well as a broken and dislocated arm that surgeons were able to repair with nine screws.
“It was huge,” Georgitis said of the alligator. “I don’t even know how big it was because I was sitting right there. He felt huge.”
He is now warning other divers about the ‘aggressive’ creature.
“It’s a famous place and this thing is huge. He didn’t even take a second to attack me. He was on me as soon as he saw me. Anyone else diving, be careful,” he said.
Georgitis has no health insurance but is accepting donations through his Venmo @William-Georgitis-1 to help pay for his long road to recovery.
The American alligator is the only species native to South Carolina. The reptile was previously classified as endangered, but has been downgraded to ‘threatened’ following a population recovery.
While alligator attacks are not unheard of, they are relatively rare in the US, with an average of only six fatal encounters per year according to the wildlife encyclopedia AZ Animals.