A Florida boy became an honorary Florida man Tuesday after he remained cool and collected to survive an alligator attack.

“It just stings a little bit, but I’m good.”

(Video: Fox 35)

Earlier this week, 13-year-old Gabriel Klimis was playing with friends at Howell Creek in Winter Springs, Florida, northeast of Orlando, when his decision to jump once more from a rope landed him in the hospital.

Speaking with Fox 35, the boy described how he was heading out of the water when the encounter began as “one of my [feet] was on the sand and then the gator got my other one and then pulled me back.”

“I knew that if he didn’t let go, there was no getting him off because his jaw was so tied on. There’s no getting out of that,” Klimis explained to the reporter, recounting how he latched onto a stick on shore to keep from getting pulled all the way in.

“He kept pulling, so then I just tried to hit him…and then he let go and then I ran up as fast as I could,” he further detailed.

After breaking loose from the gator that had clamped down on his right hip, Klimis fled to a nearby house where he first called his mom, Allison Klimis, who told him he needed to call 911. His story, she told Fox 35, left her in “complete shock. Terror, of course. Super scared.”

On the line with the 911 dispatcher, the young boy exhibited none of the emotions his mother had expressed as he calmly detailed, “Yeah, I can walk. I just got bit by a gator.”

Explaining the specifics, he said, “My right hip. I’m ok though. I can walk and I can stand. I’m fine, it just stings a little bit, but I’m good.”

“It’s not bleeding too bad, but my skin’s, like, open pretty good,” Klimis continued. As to the whereabouts of the gator, he admitted, “I don’t know. I got out of the water as fast as I could.”

His encounter, which left him needing stitches and suffering soreness was not nearly as horrific as that of 23-year-old Jordan Rivera who had his arm ripped off by an alligator in May in Port Charlotte, Florida, when he had gone outside to avoid a wait for the restroom, leaving him aware of how fortunate he ultimately was.

“I didn’t lose my life, I lost an arm, it’s not the end of the world. As I was going over there something happened where I either tripped or the ground below me just went down,” he had said. “I ended up in the water. And that’s literally the last thing I remember.

Bloody video; man has arm ripped off by 10 ft. gator while peeing behind Fla bar to avoid bathroom line https://t.co/Zn3xh9YiTd pic.twitter.com/T7TO8sKMRM

— Conservative News (@BIZPACReview) May 27, 2023

Klimis’ mom had similar sentiments when she told Fox 35, “In the end, I’m just blessed, grateful, thankful that the angels [were] watching over him and God was there because I know without that, my son could definitely be gone.”

As for whether or not the Florida teen has shied away from the water, he expressed, “It’s not going to stop me from swimming somewhere else, like in a different creek or something, with my friends and having fun.”

While a gator had been captured and killed in the area by a trapper, it remained unclear if it was the same one that attacked Klimis.

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Kevin Haggerty

Staff Writer

Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.

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