{"id":369157,"date":"2026-08-12T07:46:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T07:46:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/369157\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T07:46:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T07:46:18","slug":"harrowing-details-of-florida-alligator-attack-that-left-mom-dina-spanns-arm-hanging-off-by-thread-revealed-by-son","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/369157\/","title":{"rendered":"Harrowing details of Florida alligator attack that left mom Dina Spann’s arm ‘hanging off by thread’ revealed by son"},"content":{"rendered":"

A mom\u2019s arm was left \u201changing\u201d by \u201ca thread\u201d after an alligator pounced on her while she was swimming in a river<\/a>, her son revealed.<\/p>\n

Dina Spann, 58, was enjoying a day with family boating on the Silver River in Florida\u2019s Marion County when disaster struck on Saturday afternoon.<\/a><\/p>\n

Her shocked son, Zach Guerrina, who was on the day trip with her, told The Post that bystanders used Spann\u2019s bikini top as a tourniquet to stop the bleeding from her right arm.<\/p>\n

Dina Spann lost her arm after she was attacked by an alligator while swimming in a Florida river. Facebook\/Dina Rae<\/p>\n

\u201cThe gator came towards her and she tried to shoo it away with a stick and it attacked her,\u201d Guerrina said. \u201cShe got on the bank, a boat pulled up, she got in there with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey tied up the arm with an anchor rope as well, so it had her bathing suit top and an anchor rope on her right arm, and she was just as calm as a f\u2013king cucumber,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a crazy situation and she was the calmest one there, with her arm hanging off by a f\u2013king thread.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guerrina, 38, a dad of five who works as a carpenter, said that he had left his mom floating in the river with two teenage relatives and his brother\u2019s girlfriend just minutes before the gator pounced.<\/p>\n

Spann is still in hospital receiving treatment for her injuries and may still need to undergo several surgeries but is in \u201cgood spirits,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

She fought back with her hands and lost the ring finger up to the knuckle on her left hand before the gator locked in on her right arm, which has been amputated below the elbow, according to her son. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Spann pictured with her son Zach Guerrina (left) and another man in a 2026 Facebook photo. Facebook\/Dina Rae<\/p>\n

\u201cShe wasn\u2019t just letting it happen,\u201d he said. \u201cShe was trying to hold its mouth shut, swimming to the top to get a breath of fresh air and keep it from biting on her legs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt had her but she said she was trying to make sure it didn\u2019t get to her legs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked why the gator had gone for her and not the kids she was with, Guerrina said she was \u201cin front of everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spann\u2019s son told The Post his mother was \u201ccalm as a f\u2014king cucumber\u201d after the gator attack. Facebook\/Dina Rae<\/p>\n

He said the family is relieved the youngsters weren\u2019t attacked.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom\u2019s retired, she\u2019s had a good life, she\u2019s done well for herself, and she\u2019s a good-spirited person,\u201d\u00a0Guerrina said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cShe\u2019s not looking at it like, \u2018Oh, my God, I don\u2019t have an arm,\u2019 she\u2019s looking at it like, this is a crazy f\u2013king story.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m pretty proud of her.\u201d<\/p>\n

The location of the alligator attack on the Silver River in Florida\u2019s Marion County. WOFL<\/p>\n

Despite swimming in the river being banned, Guerrina said he blamed the attack on tourists who have been getting too close to the alligators \u2013\u2013 even petting and feeding them.<\/p>\n

The dad called for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) to grant more permits for large gators to be hunted.<\/p>\n

Brave paddleboarder Mike Head explained how he desperately tried to fend off the monster as it savagely tore into Spann\u2019s arm.<\/p>\n

John Gamache helped rescue Spann after hearing her cries for help. WOFL<\/p>\n

He told Fox 35 that he sprang into action when he saw the reptile heading toward her \u201clike a missile.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another good Samaritan, boater John Gamache, helped out by speeding towards the cries for help.<\/p>\n

First responders then rushed the victim to a nearby hospital after she was returned to the shore.<\/p>\n

Trappers contracted by the FWC caught and removed a 9-foot, 8-inch alligator Sunday, and the river was reopened to the public.<\/p>\n

The shocking attack comes just weeks after a Californian woman was killed by an alligator in a Florida river.<\/p>\n

Brittany Clark, 31, died <\/a>after a huge, 13-foot gator tore into her as she was swimming in the Econlockhatchee River at Little Big Econ State Forest on June 28.<\/p>\n

A boy also lost his hand in June <\/a>after a gator bit him while he was on a fishing trip with his father.<\/p>\n

Brodie Terry, 11, from Pennsylvania, was attacked<\/a> in Marion County on June 27 by an 8-foot, 7-inch gator that pounced as he was about to release a fish back into the water.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A mom\u2019s arm was left \u201changing\u201d by \u201ca thread\u201d after an alligator pounced on her while she was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[13925,913,20572,28,30,29,4278],"class_list":["post-369157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-alligators","tag-animal","tag-animal-attacks","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369157","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=369157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}