The son of a Florida woman who fought an alligator that struck her during a family swim has revealed the chilling new details of the attack that left her arm “hanging” by a “thread.”
On Aug. 8, Dina Spann was enjoying a family day on Florida’s Silver River in Marion County, floating in the water alongside two teenage relatives and her son’s girlfriend.
Her 38-year-old son, Zach Guerrina, had stepped away only minutes earlier, leaving his mother relaxing with the group when everything suddenly changed.
Within minutes, the relaxed family outing turned into a fight for her life.
“The gator came towards her, and she tried to shoo it away with a stick and it attacked her,” Guerrina told the New York Post.
‘She wasn’t just letting it happen’
The 58-year-old mother didn’t surrender when the reptile pulled her beneath the surface.
According to her son, she fought back with her hands before the alligator clamped onto her right arm.
“She wasn’t just letting it happen,” Guerrina told the Post. “She was trying to hold its mouth shut, swimming to the top to get a breath of fresh air and keep it from biting on her legs.”
“It had her, but she said she was trying to make sure it didn’t get to her legs,” he added.
Racing to the swimmers
Help was already racing toward her.
John Gamache and his father had been eating lunch on their boat nearby when they heard frantic cries coming from farther up the river.
“I looked just upriver from us a couple hundred feet and saw an alligator head way above the water and going full speed towards the swimmers,” Gamache told Fox 35 Orlando, explaining that the spring water was clear enough for him to immediately spot the 9-foot-8-inch alligator bolting toward the group.
Gamache sped toward the swimmers, and by the time he reached them, the alligator had released Spann. He said the commotion from the approaching boat also helped scare away from the massive reptile.
Spann managed to get on the boat with Gamache, part of her right arm dangling from her body, while several other members of her group remained in the water.
‘Calm as a f**king cucumber’
With Spann bleeding heavily, those helping her improvised with whatever they had available to try control the blood loss from her badly injured right arm.
“They tied up the arm with an anchor rope as well, so it had her bathing suit top and an anchor rope on her right arm, and she was just as calm as a f**king cucumber,” Guerrina told the Post.
“It was a crazy situation, and she was the calmest one there, with her arm hanging off by a f**king thread,” he added.
Meanwhile, Gamache and his father had turned their attention to the others still stranded in the water, bringing the remaining swimmers and children onto the boat before racing toward the nearest launch.
From there, first responders took over and rushed Spann to the hospital, where her right arm was amputated below the elbow.
She had also lost part of the ring finger on her left hand while fighting the alligator.
‘I’m pretty proud of her’
For Spann’s family, the outcome could have been even worse.
Asked why he believed the alligator targeted his mother rather than one of the younger swimmers around her, Guerrina said she had simply been “in front of everybody.”
Knowing the children escaped unharmed has helped shape the way the family is looking at an attack that permanently changed Spann’s life.
“My mom’s retired, she’s had a good life, she’s done well for herself, and she’s a good-spirited person,” Guerrina shared.
“She’s not looking at it like, ‘Oh, my God, I don’t have an arm,’ she’s looking at it like, this is a crazy f**king story,” he said, adding, “I’m pretty proud of her.”
By Aug. 9, Spann had been discharged from the hospital and was recovering at home.
Alligator trapped
As she started that recovery, wildlife officials returned their attention to the animal responsible.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers and a contracted nuisance alligator trapper responded to the area, with officials confirming that the alligator was removed on Aug. 9.
For Gamache, a longtime visitor to Silver Springs who said he had never witnessed an alligator attack there before, the story eventually came full circle when Spann’s family contacted him.
“They called earlier and we talked for a while and it was heartwarming to hear them explain their emotions,” he told Fox 35.
“We’re glad that it happened as good as it could have. Like the result is just the sustained injury and nothing more.”
What do you think of Dina Spann’s incredible courage during the attack and the quick-thinking boaters who rushed in to help save her life? Please let us know your thoughts, then share this story to recognize everyone who stepped up when every second mattered!
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