‘Not The End Of The World’: FL Man Upbeat After Losing Arm To Gator

PORT CHARLOTTE, FL — An alligator bit off the arm of a man who fell into a pond behind Banditos Bar in Port Charlotte early Sunday morning, and the victim is glad to have survived.

Despite this, Jordan Rivera, 23, of Englewood appeared optimistic less than two days after the attack. The victim seemed to shrug off the loss of his limb during an interview with NBC 2.

“I didn’t lose my life; I lost an arm; it’s not the end of the world, you know,” he told the news outlet.

Though his memories of the gator attack are a bit hazy, he told NBC 2 that the bar’s bathroom lines were long, so he went outside to relieve himself. Not realizing how big the pond out back was, he either fell or tripped into it.

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The 23-year-old was airlifted as a trauma alert to Gulf Coast Medical Center in Fort Myers.

One bar patron, Manny Hidalgo, heard calls for help from outside the bar, near the pond behind it, and ran out to assist the victim.

"He was yelling and swimming toward the shoreline," Hidalgo told The Daily Sun. "I ran and dragged him up onto the sand. I was scared to get close to the water because it was dark out."

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Charlotte County Sheriff's Office and Charlotte County EMS all responded to the scene of the gator attack.

An alligator trapper contracted by the FWC later responded to the scene and removed a gator that was 10 feet, 5 inches long. The reptile was humanely killed, Fox 4 Now said.

David Lowe, who was at Banditos Sunday afternoon, said this wasn't the first time a gator was seen at the bar.

“At least 20 years, the big one I know of if it’s the same one, he’s been there 20 years," he told ABC 7.

Staff and diners at a nearby restaurant were also known for feeding alligators in the pond, Lowe said. “There was a restaurant they just tore down, and I know people did feed that you know throw whatever they didn’t eat down on the water."

A coworker of Rivera’s mother has started a GoFundMe fundraiser for the family to help with Rivera’s hospital bills.

“He sustained a significant injury. If you know Teresa you know she will give anyone the shirt off her back,” according to the fundraiser’s description. “If anyone needed anything at all she would be the first one to be right there for you. Let’s please return the favor!”

As of Wednesday morning, nearly $17,000 of a $50,000 goal has been raised.

The money will be used toward medical bills to help Rivera “get back to his fun loving, happy, thoughtful, generous self,” the GoFundMe said.