Florida man Jordan Rivera, whose arm was ripped off by a 10-foot alligator, was urinating in the pond because the bar line was too long

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By read brown

May 24, 2023 | 11:39

A Florida bar patron whose arm was severed by a 10 1/2-foot alligator has revealed it was mutilated while urinating in a pond.

Speaking from his bed in a Fort Myers intensive care unit, Jordan Rivera, 23, told NBC2 that he only left the busy Banditos Bar to go to the bathroom early Sunday morning because the line to go to the bathroom was too long. long.

“I just saw a little lake, so I was trying to go there and pee a little bit,” he told the outlet, saying he “didn’t realize how big” the pond actually was.

“Something happened where I tripped or the ground under me just caved in, and I ended up in the water,” he said.

“And that’s literally the last thing I remember.”

He recalled his utter “confusion” when he woke up in a hospital bed to be told that an alligator had eaten his right arm.

“I looked over and saw my arm as it was, and I was like, ‘Wow,’” he said.

“It was the craziest thing, almost like something out of a movie.”

Still, he remains philosophical about his gruesome encounter, saying: “I didn’t lose my life, I lost an arm. It’s not the end of the world.”

Rivera revealed the real reason for his near-death attack in part to dispel local gossip: that he became the alligator’s food while trying to feed him Banditos bar food.

“They don’t even serve food at that bar, so they couldn’t even have served the alligator food,” he said, firmly calling the rumor “completely false.”

He also marveled at Banditos regular Manny Hidalgo, who takes his cat, Mr. Tom, bar-hopping with him, for rushing him to safety.

“The first thing I would do is shake the man’s hand,” Rivera said, perhaps again forgetting that he had lost his arm and saying that he “feels like” it was still “just there.”

The mutilated man’s mother, Teresa Lessa, also praised those who rushed to help, including Army veteran Trent Rozier, who told The Daily Sun he used a belt as a tourniquet, kneeling on Rivera’s shoulder to stop the bleeding. while they waited for him to finish. be airlifted to the hospital.

“I call them angels,” said the relieved mother, sure that “they saved her life.”

“The possibility of someone being there with a tourniquet, to me, it’s a miracle that they’re here,” he said.

“Yes, the arm is gone, very traumatic, but he is here.”

Wildlife officials later confirmed that a 10-and-a-half-foot alligator was caught and euthanized.