Hunter Bitten By Gator In The Everglades Describes Coming Face To Face With It

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – As Krit Krutchaiyan led his kayak into the water in the Everglades last Friday afternoon for a duck hunt, he felt something hit his leg under the water.

He thought it was a tree limb.

It was actually an alligator.

"He came up," Krutchaiyan told CBS4's Carey Codd. "He grabbed my leg. I had my paddle in my right hand and I don't know if I hit him with my paddle or my fist. The alligator let go."

Krutchaiyan backpedaled to get away but the gator followed and his hunting partner, Roberto Gautier, heard his cries for help.

"I remember seeing the alligator coming towards me again and my partner shoved my kayak in between the alligator and myself and I think if he hadn't done that the alligator would've gotten another bite," he said.

Krutchaiyan credits Gautier, who he's been hunting with for more than a dozen years, with playing a crucial role in saving his life.

Krutchaiyan, a former U.S. Army veteran, had the presence of mind to put a tourniquet on his leg, using his belt.

Then, an off-duty firefighter drove Krutchaiyan to a rescue chopper that took him to Broward Health Medical Center.

Krutchaiyan showed Codd the six to eight-foot gash from the gator that went through to the bone as well as some other bite marks on his leg.

He still doesn't know why the gator let go of him, especially when the gator immediately went into a death roll.

"If he would've latched on and did the death roll, it would've pulled me in," Krutchaiyan said.

Fortunately, that didn't happen.

Krutchaiyan, a married father of two girls says he's never going to step foot in the Everglades water again because it's what's below the surface that is truly dangerous.

"I won't go into the water and wade because you can't control what you can't see," he said.

Krutchaiyan said he'll need plastic surgery on his leg and that he should make a full recovery.