ENGLEWOOD, Fla. (AP) - A 70-year-old woman was in fair condition Monday after an alligator ripped off part of her arm as she trimmed brush outside her condo, officials said.
The 8-foot 3-inch alligator latched on to Helena Couto's arm just below the elbow Sunday and tried to drag her into a nearby pond, said Gary Morse, a spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
She was saved by a resident who managed to pull her away, More said.
"A neighbor came to the rescue and had her by the legs," he said.
A deputy shot and killed the alligator.
Wildlife commission officials cut into the alligator and retrieved the arm, which was then flown to Tampa General Hospital where Couto was awaiting surgery to reattach it, Charlotte County spokesman Robert Carpenter said.
Hospital spokeswoman Ellen Fiss wouldn't say Monday whether the surgery was successful.
Helena v. The Gator
(With apologies to Helena, and the ghost of Kipling)
Oh you can sit there on your ass,
While the servants cut the grass,
In the suburbs, with lawns like Persian rugs.
But where the condos sprawl in squalor
And the senile neighbors holler
You trim your own damn brush amidst the bugs.
Now in Englewood’s sunny clime
Where Miz Helena spent her time
Aliving out her golden years alone,
Since her husband hopped a ship,
To escape her nagging lip,
She fought the kudzu like a trooper to atone.
Well that day she started hearty,
With a Metamucil party,
And a little chat with the ladies from next door.
Then she chased it all with prune juice
Allowed a little wind to bust loose
And said “Its time to cut the brush along the shore."
She put a bonnet on her head
And she went out to the shed
And retrieved her trusty 2-cycle weed whacker.
And she strapped on her machete
Fueled up and she was ready
No one ever dared to call this gal a slacker.
Now on the shore near Helena’s
Lived a gator name of Venus,
A sultry, scaly reptile fornicatrix
After her night of wanton pleasure
She'd concealed her ovoid treasure,
In a nest composed of muck and damp leaf matrix.
As with most expectant mothers,
If ol' Venus had her druthers
Folks would have left her bloody well alone.
But she heard the strident sputter
Of Helena’s old brush cutter
And she lurked in fury, still as any stone.
Now as Helena worked on by
Ol’ Venus she did spy
And said “You’d best shove off you scaly bitch."
Then she thrust out her weed whacker
And made like to attack her
And for just grins, she gunned the throttle switch.
Well now it was truly frightening
How ol’ Venus moved like lightening,
And grabbed our fair Helena by the arm.
And she dragged her toward the lake
While Helena beat her with a rake
And screamed “Help me or I’m gonna buy the farm."
Well just then a passing neighbor
Thought he saw a chance to save her
So he leaped and grabbed Helena by the calf.
But Venus, she got madder
And she writhed just like an adder
And chomped Helena’s humerus in half.
Well, a Florida State Trooper
The quintessential party pooper
With gun a-blazin’ drilled poor Venus clean.
Then he slit her bulgin’ paunch
And rucked ‘round in the raunch
Pulling out Helena’s arm and Venus’ spleen.
Well, as Venus gasped her last,
Her mate Voltan happened past
And he saw and vowed that vengeance would be his.
Since then he’s lurked and gobbled oodles
Of obnoxious little poodles
And a temperamental toddler name o’ Liz.
And its
Geezers
Geezers
Geezers
I’ll be watching as you totter to and fro
Though you drain the swamps and pave ‘em
And don’t do a bloody thing to save ‘em
You’re really not bad eating and you’re slow.