A Florida 13-year-old is speaking out after surviving an alligator attack in which the reptile only let go of its right leg after the teenager punched him.
Gabriel Klimis, 13, was playing with friends at Howell Creek near Orlando last Tuesday.
He jumped off a bridge using a rope to try to cross the creek when he felt something.
‘I had one foot in the sand and then the gator got my other and then dragged me back,’ Klimis said.
As the gator finally hung onto his right leg, Klimis fully realized the danger he was in.
Gabriel Klimis (pictured right), 13, was playing with friends at Howell Creek near Orlando earlier this week when he was attacked by a gator.
“I knew there was no way I was going to get him down if he didn’t let go because his jaw was so clenched,” he said. ‘There’s no getting out of it.’
‘I just felt a pull on me, and I already knew what it was…’ she told News 6. ‘I just hit the water and started trying to get him off me.’
Clemis’s response was to hold a stick on the bank and punch the gator in an attempt to fight it so it wouldn’t be pulled in further.
‘He kept pulling, so I tried to hit him and then he took off and then I ran as fast as I could,’ he told Fox 35.
Klimis quickly ran to a nearby house, where she called her mother, who told her to dial 911.
‘I was completely shocked,’ said Alison Klimis, her mother and a doctor herself. ‘Definitely terrorism. is very afraid.’
However, her 13-year-old son remained calm, simply telling the 911 dispatcher: ‘Yes, I can walk. I just ran into a gator.’
‘It’s stinging a little bit but I’m fine,’ Kimis continued, adding that ‘it’s not bleeding too bad, but my skin is pretty open.’
Gabriel Klimis survived an alligator attack and even managed to punch the reptile.
Klimis, 13, had previously been playing with friends at Howell Creek near Orlando
‘I was completely shocked,’ said Alison Klimis (pictured right), her mother and a doctor herself. ‘Definitely terrorism. very scared’
Klimis was taken to a local hospital and received stitches to his leg and is expected to make a full recovery.
The dispatcher then asked Klimis what happened to the gator.
‘I don’t know,’ replied the boy. ‘I got out of the water as fast as I could.’
Klimis was taken to a local hospital and received stitches to his leg and is expected to make a full recovery.
‘At the end of the day, I’m just blessed, thankful, thankful that the angels were watching over him and that God was there because I know that my son could have gone without it,’ added mother Allison.
His son said he plans to continue his outdoor adventures this summer.
Gabriel says the gator attack won’t stop him from having fun with his friends this summer
‘It wouldn’t stop me from swimming somewhere else, like in a different creek or something, with my friends and having fun,’ he said.
Alison Klimis has started a GoFundme in an effort to raise $15,000 to cover Gabrielle’s medical expenses.
Florida Wildlife Conservation said Thursday they are ‘fairly confident’ they have contained the eight-foot gator from the incident.
Read Full News Here