“I felt the teeth clamp down and instantly realized it was a gator. My entire head and upper chest were inside her mouth. Then she bit down and I felt the teeth pierce my flesh. There was a loud popping sound, then instinct took over.”
Those are the words JC describes as the moment he was attacked by a 12-foot gator on August 3rd, 2022, at Thonotossa lake in Florida.
Earlier that day he’d rushed out of a marketing meeting in order to make a 1 pm appointment. He was going to a video shoot with a videographer he’d never met before named Matt.
The plan was to film a promotional video for the first in a series of adventure races that JC and his company DefeatX had scheduled. The race was to occur on November 26, 2022 and was open to athletes of all backgrounds and expertise. (TBA Postponed)
Once JC and Matt had both arrived at the lake, they went over the shots they hoped to capture. Matt had brought along his drone, so they decided to film the swim course segment first. As JC prepared for the swim he was dismayed to discover that in his rush to arrive on time, he’d forgotten his swim goggles.
Swimming alone in a murky Florida lake without goggles and a cap for his long hair might deter the average person, but not JC. As a seasoned Ironman triathlete with multiple races under his belt, and a regular participant in local open water swimming meet-ups, he’s spent countless hours in the water.
He wasn’t going to let a small technicality like forgotten goggles ruin the day. At 2 pm, without goggles, swim cap, kayak support, or any of the safety elements that would have been available to the participants on race day, JC dove into the water.
The swim started off smoothly, and Matt dutifully flew the drone overhead to capture the action. Then, roughly 350 yards into the swim, a large shape appeared in the water ahead of JC. (Without swimming goggles and a swim cap)
Looking like a torpedo churning up the water, it bee-lined straight towards him, and then chaos erupted.
With a chuckle, despite a jaw wired shut so the broken bones can mend, JC described this initial contact with the gator, “One time in high school while jogging with a friend, we were mid-conversation and I wasn’t paying attention, then wham, I ran straight into a telephone pole. Getting hit by the gator felt like running into that telephone pole, but now it had teeth.”
Even now as he lies in the hospital recovering, JC maintains his jovial nature.
Continuing on with the story he said,
“When the teeth clamped down I instantly realized it was a gator. My entire head and upper chest were inside of her mouth. Then she bit down and I felt the teeth pierce my flesh. There was a loud popping sound, then instinct took over. God gave me the strength and ability to instantly grab both the upper and lower parts of the jaw. One half of the jaw was clamped on my lower chest, the other on my lower shoulder blade. I’m not the most flexible person usually, but on this day, somehow I was able to grab the tip of her snout and pull. She chomped down again, and I felt teeth pierce my skull. Then somehow, maybe she tried to do a death roll, maybe I flipped him, but we did a full 360. I reached my hands into her mouth and I remember feeling her scales and also her teeth. I was surprised that the teeth were not that sharp, not like sharks’ teeth, more like ours but pointier. Right then I knew, don’t ask me how but I knew I was gonna get this thing off of me.
Once we were upside down she let go, maybe because my hands were inside her mouth and she’d never experienced that before, I don’t know the reason, but I immediately started swimming for a nearby dock.
The platform was about 4’ above the water line so I had to do a muscle up with an assist from my feet to grab hold of the platform. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that the gator was turning away, so I lifted one leg up onto a structural part of the dock and doing a pull-up, swung my body out of the water and onto the platform. At this point, I still didn’t realize the extent of my injuries, but once I was safely out of the gator’s reach I saw I was bleeding. That’s when the adrenaline wore off enough for the pain to hit. It was unbearable, like a migraine radiating from the back of my eyes and shooting out the bottom of my jaw. I realized that the popping sound I’d heard earlier was my jaw breaking. As I stood, I prayed to stay conscious. It was weird, besides the pain, I could still feel the crushing sensations like she still had me in her mouth.
My next thought was that I needed to let Matt know I was okay. I started walking up the shore, and internally, I believed I was going to be okay, but I needed to make sure that Matt knew that. I’ve worked as a fire medic for four years, a para-rescue specialist for another 5, and an EMT-P for the last 15+ years. Things like this can mess a person up for life, and I didn’t want that to happen to him.
I started to make my way up to where I thought there was a road.
The walk up from the shore was so long, but eventually, I got to a gate behind one of the big houses that lines the lake shore and managed to jimmy it open. As I walked into these peoples’ backyard I saw a young blonde girl.
I tried to cover my face in the hope of preventing any psychological trauma to her and softly asked her to please get her mother. She ran off to comply and a young boy I hadn’t seen before walked up to me; he was intuitive and knew I was hurt. I think he realized what had happened and he shouted for his mother to hurry. When their mother arrived she handed me a towel, and I asked her to call 911, but instructed that they send help to the place where I had started the swim. I wanted to get back to Matt and have a chance to talk to him before being taken to the hospital.
Without a second thought these good samaritans loaded my bloody person into their car and drove me back towards where I’d started the swim, but when we got close there was a gate blocking the way down to where we were parked. They tried, but none of them knew how to open it. I again prayed for strength and consciousness as I pulled myself out of the car and walked in bare feet across the boiling hot concrete to open the gate. Through all this I held the blood soaked towel over my head in an effort to staunch the flow. Once they drove through, I got back in the car and we continued down towards the water, but then the grass started to get really tall and we were afraid her car might get stuck. I knew I had to get out of the car and walk the rest of the way.
As I stood once again the pain was indescribable. It made the walk back down to the water feel like a marathon. Finally I got close enough and I called Matt’s name.
By now I was losing about 10ccs worth of blood with every one of my breaths. I knew I had to stay focused, so I looked around and made a quick assessment of what needed to be done:
– Explain to Matt what happened.
– Load the car.
– Drive to the front of the complex to get in the ambulance.
Hearing my yell, Matt appeared and after seeing my face, immediately ran to his car to get his first aid kit. I felt like a fool for not having one myself, but I had just switched the vehicle I used at work and all my first aid stuff was in the other car. Matt rushed back to me, and I could see he was in a state of high stress, and who could blame him? I have a lot of experience in situations like this and I think it’s the only reason I was able to keep a level head. I took the bandage from him and told him everything was going to be okay. Then I looked in my car for anything I could use to flush the wounds; I knew infection was going to be an issue and I had to clear the debris from my face. Unfortunately the only thing I had was a half drunk seltzer water from earlier, so I washed things out as best as I could, then I applied the trauma dressing as tightly as possible without causing so much pain I’d black out.
I told Matt to put all our things in the car so we could go to the front gate. It was only 1000 yards from where we were, so I offered to drive, and I did. Once we got to the front, the Hillsborough County Fire Rescue engine was on the scene. The first thing they asked me was, “Where’s the gator?” By now I was at the edge of my endurance, and I didn’t mean to be rude, but I said, “Where the hell would it be, it’s in the water!” Then they made a quick assessment of my wounds and informed me that they wouldn’t be able to give me any pain killers because I had a head injury.
I thought that was some nonsense cookie cutter protocol, but didn’t argue and just sucked it up. Moments later the actual ambulance arrived and they immediately loaded me into the back and took off. Luckily I know one of the trauma doctors at Tampa General Hospital, so as we drove, I texted someone I knew that has his number, and good thing too, because as we pulled up they were quick to get me what I needed. It was only two hours from the time of the attack to the time I got some pain medicine, but it felt like a thousand years.
Not long after I was taken in for a 6-hour surgery that involved Neuroband ENT.
Matt recounts his experience from the shoreline, “About 5 minutes into the swim I was checking my instrument panel and making sure all the drones systems were operating properly. That’s when I heard the scream. I looked out across the lake but couldn’t really see anything, so I closed the heads up display on my drone controller and returned to the video feed, but by then I just saw JC swimming towards shore. I watched him pull himself onto the dock, then he calmly walked up the shore before disappearing into some houses. I knew something was wrong, but I had no idea how bad it was. I thought he might have collided with a rock or some underwater obstacle. I tried to get over to him but there were fences blocking the way, so I wasn’t sure what to do. I tried to find him with the drone but he was no where to be found. That’s when I landed the drone so I could continue the search on foot. Maybe 10 minutes later I heard JC call for me and I ran back up to where the cars were parked. That’s when I saw the towel around his head and how badly he was bleeding. Right then my training kicked in. My dad has always insisted that I carry a first aid kit and know how to use it, and on this day I’m so thankful I had one. The most important thing with any trauma is to staunch the bleeding, so I grabbed the biggest bandage I had and gave it to JC.”
Later, after JC had been taken away by the ambulance, one of the police officers asked if Matt had gotten the attack on film. Reviewing the footage together they watched in horror as the entire thing played out. Matt describes it like this, “At first I felt terrible for having filmed something so awful. JC is one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet, anyone who meets him knows it right away, he’s just one of those larger than life personalities. And now, to see this happen to him, it felt wrong to have filmed it. But then I watched the film again, and again, and eventually I started to realize there is another side to this story. If the attack had happened any other way, it could have been so much worse. The way she grabbed him, the angles, the way they turned, the fact that he had a quick moment to catch a breath of air, somehow it all happened in just the right way, and he was able to escape. If she’d only gotten ahold of his head the initial twist might have broken his neck, or given her the chance to drag him under and drown him. Seeing it made me realize it was more than a tragedy, it’s also a miracle. A miracle that there were people there to help him every step of the way, a miracle he’s still with us, a miracle that despite the severity of the injuries, he’s recovering and keeping his positive spirit.”
Two weeks after the attack, having had more time to reflect on everything that’s happened, JC said this, “If we fail to plan we plan to fail that’s world wisdom. Scripture wisdom is way more beautiful though.
Proverbs 19:21 Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.
The little dinosaur was not God’s doing but instead that of the finite world we live in. I survived the deepest levels of darkness through his Grace and Love. I will never forget that.”
When I woke up that day, all I could think about was promoting our adventure race. I wanted to make the video, I wanted to get the word out, I had a plan, a plan that was interrupted by 12’ of prehistoric fury. And I’m a little embarrassed to say this, but when that gator had me in its mouth, when it was interrupting my plan for the day, in the back of my mind I was annoyed. Because it was getting in the way of what I was there to do. That’s how hard I go after the things that I believe in. But, then she let me go, and I swam. Harder than I’ve ever swum before, but in a new direction, because the plan had changed. Sometimes in life, our plans change. And when they do, we just have to swim harder than we’ve ever swum before.”
For those of us on the outside reading this, it might be hard to imagine how anyone can keep in good spirits through an experience like this. But if it seems impossible, consider this. Long before the Miracle on lake Thonotossa occurred, JC and his team wrote this mission statement in the “About” section of the joindefeatx.com
adventure race website:
“X is our most versatile letter. It can “mark the spot” on a map. It can identify a wrong answer. It can stand in for an unknown in a mathematical equation.
The Defeat X team uses it to denote the unique struggles that we all face as individuals. Every person is in the midst of fighting their own war, though the fight may be imperceptible to those around them.
Our team aims to harness sportsmanship, adventure, and fun to win these personal battles and overcome adversity. And we believe that as we experience the elation of overcoming obstacles and accomplishing unforeseen successes, we have the obligation to help others do the same.”
I’m sure JC will continue to do just that, for himself, and many others.
Perspective from family to follow.