A 71-year-old Florida man is recovering after fighting off an alligator that attacked him while he was fishing behind his home last month.
James Grayson McMicken said the attack happened on June 26 after he took his bulldog outside and made a single cast into a canal behind his North Fort Myers home.
“I started reeling, and it jumped out of the water and grabbed me,” McMicken said, CBS 12 reported.
According to McMicken, the alligator bit his right leg and dragged him into the water.
“He rolled me down off the bank into the water. I stuck my thumb in one eye, and I just took that fishing pole and jabbed him in that other eye and jabbed him and jabbed him and jabbed him. It seemed like forever, but it wasn’t that long. But then, he turned loose,” he said.
McMicken said his previous experience legally hunting alligators helped him react during the attack.
“I’ve always heard that if you’ve got no other choice, get them eyes, and that’s what got him off of me,” he said.
After escaping the alligator, McMicken said he still had to make it back to his house despite his injuries. He credited his bulldog with helping him reach safety.
“I’d have never made it crawling this far, so I called my dog over. She stood there and let me get up on her back to where I could get stood up,” he said.
Once inside, his wife cleaned his wounds before he collapsed from exhaustion.
“Then, I sat down in my chair and passed out. I was so exhausted,” McMicken said.
Family members later took him to Cape Coral Hospital, where he was treated with staples and stitches for deep bite wounds on both sides of his right leg.
McMicken said hospital staff were surprised by the circumstances of his survival.
“All the nurses on the floor had to come by and go, ‘Wow, you did what?’” he said, according to WTOC.
Despite the attack, McMicken said he has no intention of giving up fishing.
“I’m going to do everything I can not to die. No gator is going to run me off,” he said.
McMicken is recovering at home and has begun physical therapy. He said he hopes to return to fishing soon but plans to be more cautious around the water’s edge at night.
Provided by Dallas Express
