- William Georgitis was attacked by an alligator in the Cooper River
- She escaped by stabbing him in the eye and mouth with a screwdriver.
- The attack left him with a broken and dislocated arm, needing nine screws.
A South Carolina diver has revealed how he fought off a “huge” alligator with a screwdriver after the beast dragged him to the bottom of a river just as he was running out of air in his tank.
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 saw the alligator making a “straight line” toward him.
He realized the creature was about to try to roll him over, so he grabbed it and gave it a bear hug.
‘I grabbed my screwdriver that I use at the bottom of the river, stabbed him in the eye and when I did, he shook me like a rag doll. He threw me away from him. “I grabbed it because I didn’t want it to roll again,” he said. WCBD-TV.
William Georgitis fought off a “huge” alligator with a screwdriver after the beast dragged him to the bottom of a river just as his air tank was running out.
He 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 saw the alligator heading toward him.
His arm was still firmly clamped between the alligator’s powerful jaws when he sank 50 feet underwater, taking Georgitis with him.
“At that point, 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 could feel his weight pressing down on me.” he said.
“I couldn’t reach his eye again, so I went to the gum line and tried to stab him between his teeth, where the soft spots were, and that seemed to work. He shook me again, pretty hard down there, and at that moment I was out of breath.
The experienced diver was sure he was about to die.
“At that moment I knew that was the end of my life,” he said.
But miraculously he was able to release his arm and begin pushing towards the surface.
“I thought I had ripped it off and when I came back to the surface, it was hanging down like a wet noodle.” The boat guy dragged me away. “He couldn’t get me up,” he explained.
He was finally pulled from the water at Bushy Park Boat Landing before rushing to the hospital.
Georgitis was left with horrific puncture wounds to his arm, as well as a broken and dislocated arm that surgeons managed 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 puncture wounds to his arm, as well as a broken and dislocated arm that surgeons managed 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 right there. It felt huge.’
He is now warning other divers about the “aggressive” creature.
‘It’s a very well-known place and this is huge. It didn’t take him a second to attack me. He was on me as soon as he saw me. Whoever else is diving, be careful,” he said.
Georgitis does not have 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 was downgraded to simply “threatened” after a rebound in its population.
While alligator attacks are not unheard of, they are relatively rare in the U.S., with only six fatal encounters reported per year on average according to wildlife encyclopedia AZ Animals.