A triathlete got more than he bargained for when he went for a swim in a local South Carolina river in preparation for an Ironman competition next month.
Jonathan Bruney, 31, was training for an upcoming triathlon in the Savannah River on Sunday when he felt an unfamiliar but powerful pain in his arm.
“Out of nowhere, it hit me,” Bruney told CBS affiliate WRDW. “It was a pretty big impact to my right side… it felt as if my elbow had made a hard impact, maybe like diving on a gym basketball court.”
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Bruney said he was swimming when he thought he hit a log at first, before pain started shooting up his entire arm confirming that something far more serious was afoot.
A large alligator had latched onto Bruney’s right arm, and the endurance athlete suddenly went into survival mode.
“I immediately thought, ‘I need to get this off of me,’ because I didn’t want him to spin or death roll and do even more damage,” Bruney explained.
Rather than panic, Bruney remembered a weak spot and acted almost instinctively.
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“I just knew the eyes were what you should target,” Bruney said. “I put my hand on the snout, reached up, and pushed my thumb into his eyeball, and he released.”
After he emerged from the water, Bruney was bleeding so profusely that a fellow triathlete (and first responder), Matthew Davis, had to use a cord from his swim buoy as a makeshift tourniquet, WRDW reported.
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After a bystander called 911, first responders were able to get Bruney to a local hospital, where doctors were able to determine that the injuries were treatable and not long-term in nature.
“It could have been a lot worse,” Bruney told the outlet.
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He added that although he doesn’t fear the water after the incident, he now has a “healthy respect” for it, and still plans to compete in the Ironman triathlon next month.
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