POLK COUNTY, Fla. – Law enforcement released a man’s 45-minute-long 911 call on Tuesday that was recorded before first responders arrived to help a kayaker after an alligator attack in central Florida.
A woman was part of a group of kayakers that had departed from the Lake Kissimmee State Park in Lake Wales, and she was paddling near the Tiger Creek Canal when the attack happened on Monday in Polk County.
The man called 911 for help shortly after 1:35 p.m., from the wildlife preserve with the blackwater stream. There was panic and confusion, but he remained calm.
“The animal disappeared but it might not be that far away,” the man told the 911 dispatcher, according to the recording.
At first, the man reported that a man was injured in the leg and a woman was injured in the arm, but he later corrected himself. Only the woman was injured in the elbow.
The alligator had ripped off the man’s life jacket. The woman was the one bleeding.
“We can’t move her,” he said. “Her arm is really badly damaged.”
About two dozen rushed to her aid as she wasn’t able to get back in the kayak or get completely out of the water at first.
“If there was a ramp, we would be golden, but we are in the marshy area, and she is half in the boat, and they got her mostly out of the water,” he said.
The man said they were also afraid of getting a first-aid kit from one of the kayaks that was still in the water.
“It’s a puncture wound,” he said. “It looks like the kind that would get infected pretty quickly.”
The man told dispatch that the woman’s pulse was dropping, and she was starting to “get weak” and go into shock.
“She is in real pain; she is in a lot of pain,” he said.
Polk County Fire Rescue personnel and The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission responded. The man heard a helicopter above before rescuers arrived in an airboat.
The man had sent a pin near Lightsey Ranch Road and Sam Keen Road and first responders took the woman to a helicopter that flew her to the Osceola Regional Medical Center.
According to the FWC, the 8-foot-4-inches-long alligator involved in the attack was captured. The FWC contracts nuisance alligator trappers all over the state to remove a predator when there is a threat. The reptiles are then euthanized.
The FWC urged caution in the water and warned that the risk of an attack increases during the alligator breeding season in Florida, from early April to June.
Here are some safety tips from the FWC:
- If you see an alligator that is a nuisance, call the FWC hotline at 1-866-392-4286.
- Never feed alligators.
- Keep pets on a leash and away from canals, ponds, or lakes.
- Avoid swimming between dusk and dawn even in designated areas.