75-Year-Old Survives Gator Attack on Florida Golf Course

Miller went over to the edge of the water with a ball retriever tool, and found two balls that weren’t his, so he turned to leave.

That’s when the alligator launched at him from under the water and got him by his left knee.

“He lifted me up three feet and slammed me down,” Miller said.

The three men he was golfing with ran over to help. The alligator pulled Miller in the water up to his belt, but didn’t make it to the deep part of the pond. Miller was eventually able to get away.

In the emergency room at Winter Haven Hospital, Miller had to have 35 to 40 stitches to close a 10-inch lance wound, and two other 5-inch wounds.

“He just filleted me,” he said. “You could see into the bone.”

Miller also had puncture and claw marks. He was worried to lose his knee capsule — a water-tight fibrous casing that encloses the space within the joint.

Miller is recovering and the 9-foot, 190-pound gator has been captured. [The Ledger]