An Ugly Alligator Story

A South Carolina man is in critical condition after a 12-foot alligator tore his left arm off at the shoulder. If the man survives it will be a direct result of a group of nurses who happened to be attending a barbecue at the lakeside park where the attack occurred.

MONCKS CORNER — They were feasting on roast pork and dancing the Macarena while picnicking at Lake Moultrie on Sunday afternoon when a man in snorkel gear stumbled through the tree line, grasping at his left shoulder where his arm used to be.

Blood gushed from between his fingers.

'Call my wife, call my wife,' the man said through a snorkel mask.

Five nurses who were among those at the gathering quickly laid the man on the ground. They put ice on his wound, instructed him to take deep breaths and told him stories to keep him awake.

One of the picknickers, Jerome Bien, traced the bloody trail through the tree line and to the shore where he saw a pool of blood in the sand. About 25 feet out in the water in front of him, the eyes of a giant alligator stared back. The victim's arm remained clenched in its jaws.

'He was just smiling at me,' Bien said.

One of the worst alligator attacks in South Carolina's history had just unfolded, officials said.

Officials killed the alligator and retrieved the man's arm from the stomach, but doctors are not sure they can reattach it. (There are some very graphic pictures at the link (you have to click through to them past a content warning), do not even look if you're squeamish.) Video report here.