{"id":316178,"date":"2026-06-22T22:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T22:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/316178\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T22:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T22:30:10","slug":"martin-county-man-who-saved-wife-from-gator-receives-medal-for-heroism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/316178\/","title":{"rendered":"Martin County man who saved wife from gator receives medal for heroism"},"content":{"rendered":"

A man who saved his wife from a gator attack<\/a> in the St. Lucie River last summer will receive a medal for his act of heroism. <\/p>\n

The Carnegie Hero Fund announced 18 recipients of its medal for acts of extraordinary heroism on Monday. One of them is Kelby Perren, 33, who engaged in a tug-of-war with an 8-foot gator after it clamped onto his wife Amber’s right arm in the St. Lucie River last July. <\/p>\n

Gator attack survivor says encounter left her hand ‘just hanging’<\/p>\n

“I pulled her back, the gator pulled back, and I pulled her again, and she came loose,” Kelby told WPTV<\/a> in September 2025.<\/p>\n

He then rushed Amber to their boat and sped to a nearby dock where first responders were waiting. <\/p>\n

“The gator got my arm. It broke both bones in my forearm and severed the radial artery,” Amber said. “My hand was just hanging.”<\/p>\n

Amber, a Stuart optometrist, underwent five surgeries and multiple skin grafts, as well as occupational therapy as she worked to regain use of her right arm. <\/p>\n

“She’s been optimistic through this whole thing. She’s an impressive woman, and I’m lucky to be her husband,” Kelby told us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man who saved his wife from a gator attack in the St. Lucie River last summer will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[131410,28,51173,131411,1160,171,173,172,19107,179,12758],"class_list":["post-316178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-amber-perren","tag-florida","tag-gator-attack","tag-kelby-perren","tag-martin-county","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news","tag-st-lucie-river","tag-treasure-coast","tag-wptv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}