alligators swimming in canals in Okeechobee County. But early Sunday morning, an 11½-foot alligator had his full attention as Edwards, 18, struggled to free his left arm from the jaws of the reptile. "It's a very surreal feeling. You know, feeling like you're about to die here and you know, praying to God," Edwards said. "I have to give all the credit to God for keeping me out there." He got away with his life and the gator with his left arm. Edwards admits he and his friends were drinking before he decided to jump in the 25-foot-deep canal in Nubbin Slough in Okeechobee County. "I've heard different rumors of what was involved and there were no drugs involved, no dare, nobody pushed me in or something."At 2:21 a.m. Sunday, Edwards was hanging out with friends on Nubbin Slough in Okeechobee County when he told them he was going to swim across a 25-foot-deep canal, according to an Okeechobee County Sheriff's Office report. Edwards had been drinking alcoholic beverages earlier and may have been impaired, according to witnesses quoted in the report. His friends tried to persuade him not to do it, the report states. Halfway through the swim, an alligator approached Edwards and clamped down on his left arm. Edwards said he knew the next move was the death roll, when a gator pulls its prey underwater and rolls the victim around to drown it. When the alligator grabbed his arm, he remembered that gators spin their prey, so he told WFLX-TV that he grabbed a buoy line and didn't let go."I was just like holding on with everything I could for this gator was trying to pull me under," he told the station. "I'd surface, get a gasp of air and he'd just shake again and pull me under."He did it about five times," Edwards continued. Somewhere in the battle he used the middle finger on his right hand to poke the reptile in the eye. That's when Edwards got free, he said, started swimming and realized he didn't have his left arm. "I still at this time didn't realize that my arm was gone," he told WFLX-TV. "I just — my adrenalin was pumping, and I swam to the other side of the bank." His main concern was to make it to the east end of the canal so friends could pull him to safety.
The Florida State Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission captured the alligator after the attack, WFLX-TV reported. Edwards was taken to a Melbourne hospital for treatment and he should be released by the end of the week. Edwards told FOXNews.com that he wants the state to do more to control the alligator population, citing the safety of young children, but he declined to discuss his own encounter further."It seems like there's a crossroads," Edwards told WFLX-TV. "Either you have a positive attitude, you know, just make the best of a bad situation, or just sit there and feel sorry for yourself."
On Monday evening, Edwards was in fair condition at Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne with his arm severed about 3 to 4 inches above the elbow. Today, Edwards said, he will have surgery. He hopes to be out of the hospital by the weekend. Edwards said his attack shows something needs to be done about the overpopulation of gators. "They're not protected creatures. They're nuisance animals," he said. Edwards said the credit for his survival and quick thinking goes to God, friends and emergency personnel. "I don't care who you are or how strong you think you are. You aren't going to be able to hold on to a buoy line while an 11½-foot alligator is trying to pull you underwater," he said.
Commentary: Now here is a drunken youth who goes into the alligator's habitat and gets bitten. Who is the nuisance animal? Does God protect drunks? Apparently not. Then again, the kid survived! Maybe God wanted to teach this guy a lesson: SOBER UP, and don't swim in alligator territory in the middle of the night!
