A 58-year-old Florida woman lost her right arm below the elbow after an alligator attacked her while she was swimming in the Silver River, newly released 911 recordings show. The attack took place over the summer near Ray Wayside Park in Marion County. Dina Spann also lost part of a finger on her left hand, and the injuries were severe enough that witnesses described them to dispatchers as serious and urgent.
In the recordings, callers told dispatchers that her arm was badly injured and conveyed the frantic mood of the moment, with one caller reporting that her arm was gone. Spann's son, Zach Guerrina, has described how his mother tried to hold the alligator's jaws open in an effort to free herself. Her account of the struggle, as relayed by her family, shows how she fought to escape the reptile while the people around her tried to reach her.
A visitor to the park, John Gamache, rushed to the swimmers in his boat after seeing what was happening. Gamache said that minutes mattered in a situation like this and that the injuries he saw were severe. Spann was taken to a hospital, and she was reported to be in good spirits afterward. Her family later thanked Gamache by phone for the help he provided in the first critical moments.
The incident is one of several alligator encounters in Florida this year. Earlier in the year, a child was bitten by an alligator in a preserve that is off-limits to the public. The child's injuries were reported as non-life-threatening. In October, a 71-year-old man was killed by a nearly 12-foot alligator at Lake Apopka. Police said that death was the second fatal alligator attack in Florida during the year.
The Silver River, where the attack occurred, is a popular spot for swimmers and visitors in the Ocala area, and Florida's waterways are home to a large alligator population. Encounters between people and the reptiles periodically result in serious injuries, and Spann's case, captured in the emergency calls and in her family's account, shows how quickly such attacks can unfold and how much depends on bystanders who respond immediately.