Alligator chomps diver who, pinned to bottom of Cooper River, thought death was certain (2024)

GOOSE CREEK — Will Georgitis was thrilled to find several large fossilized shark teeth. But with only enough air for 10 more minutes in his scuba tank, it was time to surface.

As soon as his head broke the water line on April 15,Georgitis saw an alligator swimming nearby in the Cooper River.

"It made a beeline right at me," he said.

A foot away, the gator opened its jaws.

Thinking it was going for his head —a bite he believed would surely kill him — Georgitis threw up his right arm in a blocking move. The alligator clamped down on his forearm.

Anticipating the animal would twist his arm in a spin move to take him underwater, Georgitis wrapped his free arm and both legs around the body of the alligator so he would roll with it.

He's not sure how big the beast was, but he couldn't hook his ankles together when he wrapped his legs around it.

"And I'm 6' 2"," he said.

'Going to die'

With the alligator's jaws clutching his arm from wrist to elbow, Georgitis took the screwdriver he uses to pry fossils out of the river bed and tried to stab the reptile in the eye.

He's not sure if he hit home, but the gator immediately shook him "like a rag doll" and dove to the bottom of the Cooper River near Goose Creek— where the lowest point is about 50 feet at that spot. The alligator pinned him to the bottom with the weight of its body. The only part of the gator he could still reach with the screwdriver was its gum line. He kept stabbing and struggling to get free.

Then his scuba tank went dry.

"I knew I was going to die right then and there," Georgitis said from his home in West Ashley.

The last thing he could think to try was ripping off his own arm. He planted both feet on the massive creature. The he pushed as hard as he could.

Georgitis isn't sure how, but the gator's teeth scraped over his arm instead of tearing it off. He broke free and bolted for the surface. There, a friend waiting in a boat dragged him out of the water.

"It was a living nightmare," Georgitis said.

The encounter broke the longer bone in his lower right arm. The other bone was dislocated. Surgeons inserted a metal plate, securing it with nine screws.

"A ton" of staples were needed to close the teeth wounds, Georgitis said. He was told more surgery might be necessary, along with six months to recover.

Georgitiscontacted the S.C. Department of Natural Resources, which plans to send a team to search for the alligator. Unless the screwdriver left visible wounds, however, it's doubtful the exact animal can be identified.

DNR issued a statement acknowledging the agency is aware of the report.

"The SCDNR has received a report of an individual receiving a non-fatal bite from an alligator while scuba diving on the Cooper River," the statement said. "Details are not available at this time, and the incident is under investigation.”

George Lucas, director of public information at DNR, said that he had never heard of an alligator attacking a diver. Usually, an encounter occurs on land. Often a pet is involved.

Even those encounters are rare, he said.

In 2007, a 59-year-old man was snorkeling at Lake Moultrie when a 550-pound alligator tore his arm from his shoulder. Five nurses attending a nearby picnic tended to his wound until help arrived.

Warning to others

Georgitis wants other divers to know there are dangerous alligators in the Cooper River. Hewas attacked at a bend in the river above the spot divers know as the power lines.

He has been diving and hunting for fossils for about six years. He said he has been at that particular spot on the river 30 or 40 times; never has he had a bad encounter with an alligator— there or elsewhere.

But it's not unusual to see alligators on the banks or swimming in the Cooper, he said.

South Carolina is home to an estimated 100,000 alligators. DNR enforces strict laws about removing the federally protected species.

Alligator fatalities in South Carolina are rare, though they do happen. A Hilton Head Island woman was killed last July, and two others died in the summer of 2022 from alligator attacks, The Post and Courier reported.

Georgitis said people have told him how smart and brave he was. But he doesn't think that is what saved him.

"The only thing going through my head was pure fear."