A 15-year-old girl in Florida is being hailed as a fighter after surviving a brutal attack by a 10-foot alligator in Pond Creek. Summer Hinote was swimming near Destin on June 22 when the reptile bit into her leg and dragged her underwater. She lived to tell the tale—and her survival came down to raw courage and quick thinking.
“I just started punching it in the head as hard as I could. And he had let go and then grabbed me again,” Hinote told FOX 35. “And the second time that he let go and grabbed me, he had drug me underneath the water. And he like shook my leg around.”
The Walton County, Florida, Sheriff’s Office confirmed the attack and said Hinote sustained severe leg injuries, though doctors were able to save the limb. The teenager said the gator let go just to get a better grip before dragging her under.
“Whenever he let go, I had started running up. And I had gotten up out of the water,” she recalled. A friend helped her escape the predator’s grasp and reach safety.
