Newly released 911 calls capture the panic that followed an alligator attack on a Florida river, where 58-year-old Dina Spann suffered severe injuries while swimming with a group over the summer.
The attack happened in the Silver River near Ray Wayside Park in Marion County. Spann survived, but she lost her right arm below the elbow and part of a finger on her left hand.
Audio from two emergency calls, obtained by The New York Post, revealed [1] witnesses struggling to describe the grisly scene. One caller told a dispatcher that someone had been bitten and that the victim’s arm appeared to be hanging off.
“Somebody got bit by an alligator, I think her arm got bit — it’s dangling off,” one woman said in the call, according to the Post. She then added, “She lost half an arm.”
A separate 911 call captured a woman screaming and crying as a man attempted to tell the dispatcher where the group was located. The caller identified the location as the Silver River before delivering a blunt description of Spann’s injury.
“Her arm is gone,” the second 911 caller said. The short statement reflected the shock and confusion surrounding the violent encounter.
Fox News Digital previously reported on the August incident. Spann’s son, Zach Guerrina, told the Post that his mother tried to hold open the alligator’s jaws in an effort to escape its grip.
“It had her, but she said she was trying to make sure it didn’t get to her legs,” Guerrina said. His account described Spann’s attempt to prevent the animal from reaching another part of her body.
Other people who witnessed the attack offered their own descriptions of the chaos on the water. Park visitor John Gamache told FOX 35 Orlando that he spotted the alligator moving rapidly toward the swimmers.
Gamache said he saw the alligator’s “head way above the water and going full speed” toward the group. He then rushed toward the swimmers in his boat as the frightening scene unfolded.
“It was a terrible injury, bones poking out, blood everywhere,” Gamache said. Spann was later transported to a hospital for treatment following the attack.
FOX 35 reported earlier in the summer that Spann was in good spirits when she returned home. Her family also contacted Gamache to thank him for his response after he moved toward the swimmers during the emergency.
“They called earlier, and we talked for a while, and it was heartwarming to hear them explain their emotions,” Gamache said. The conversation gave him an opportunity to hear directly from Spann’s family after the terrifying river attack.
The incident was not the only reported alligator attack in Florida this year. Earlier in the year, a child was hospitalized after being bitten on the arm and leg while swimming in a Florida nature preserve that was off limits.
The child’s injuries were described as not life threatening. That attack added another warning about the dangers posed when people encounter alligators in Florida waters.
A separate attack in October turned deadly when a nearly 12 foot alligator killed a 71 year old man. Police said the man had been fishing along the shore of Lake Apopka in Florida.
That October incident marked Florida’s second fatal alligator attack of the year, according to police. Authorities have warned members of the public to respect wildlife and maintain their distance, a grim reminder after another year of brutal encounters.