A 31-year-old Florida woman has died after an alligator tore both her arms off during a swim in a state forest river. Now newly released 911 audio and a medical report reveal the full horror of what her boyfriend witnessed and fought through to try to save her life.
Brittany Clark was with her boyfriend Chance Allison and a friend at the Little Big Econ State Forest in central Florida on June 28 when the trio decided to swim in the Econlockhatchee River shortly after 1:30 PM.
An alligator attacked Clark in shoulder-deep water, grabbing her and performing a death roll, a technique in which alligators twist onto their backs and drag prey underwater to drown them.
Heroic acts of the boyfriend
According to a medical examiner’s report obtained by the Daily Mail, Allison grabbed the alligator with his bare hands to try to get it to release Clark. The struggle pulled them both underwater.
He managed to get the reptile to release one arm briefly before it locked onto the other. He dragged them toward shore, at which point the alligator let go. Allison then started CPR on Clark and called 911.
In the 911 audio, Allison can be heard trying to stay calm while screaming and crying sound in the background. He told the dispatcher he was still trying to get Clark’s arms away from the alligator’s mouth, before reporting that both arms were gone. The unnamed friend told the operator one arm was hanging by a thread and the other was simply gone.
“It’s bad, real bad,” Allison told the operator, begging responders to hurry. He said Clark was losing a lot of blood before trailing off. The dispatcher told him to flag down a helicopter if he saw one overhead.
The pair managed to drag Clark out of the water but she died on the way to hospital.
The alligator was euthanized and decapitated and the Barr Street Trailhead, a popular hiking route in the area, has been closed indefinitely.
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