Crocodile Attacks Swimmer

A woman was attacked by a crocodile while swimming on April Fool's Day in Dugong Bay Australia. First her friends thought it was a prank, then they fought the crocodile to try to save her life & her leg.

Dugong Bay Is a popular vacation spot in Western Australia, and Tara Hawkes was Working as a hostess aboard a luxury cruise liner on April Fool’s Day when she decided go out in a dingy to a shallow area for a swimming to cool off. The area is known to have crocodiles so her friend Big Al Sartori checked the water before she dove in. Shortly after getting in the water a crocodile locked it’s jaws onto her leg. She yelled croc and started screaming for help. Al was watching from the shore but initially thought she was playing an April fool’s joke,, until he saw the 9 foot crocodile attached to her leg.

He immediately jumped into the water onto it’s back and started trying to pulling the it’s jaw open,, though you keep a croc’s jaw closed with just a rubber band, the muscles that close a crocodile’s jaws exerts a force of about 1,540 pounds, a force equivalent to a truck falling off a cliff.

Another bystander, Mike Fletcher, jumped in the water to hold Tara’s head above water and keep her from drowning.

Crocodiles can’t bite or chew; instead they really On a lock jaw then pull their prey under water to drown them. If that doesn’t work they resort to a move known as the death roll. The death roll is where the croc pulls it’s victim underwater and turns it over in order to drown it and to rip of pieces of its flesh.

One of the only ways to escape the grip of a crocodile's jaws is to push your thumbs into its eyeballs and it releases its bite. Fortunately Al knew this, and while still on the crocodile’s back he jabbed is fingers into its eyes and pressed as hard as he could. The croc released is grip enough for Mike to pull Tara lose.

Al and Mike then put Tara in a dinghy and they sped back to True North where a helicopter was waiting to airlift her to the hospital. Once there surgeons spent the next four hours desperately trying to piece her leg back together. Tara has made a miraculous recovery after 7 months of intense physiotherapy and both Big Al and Mark won awards for their bravery and selfless act from the Royal Life Saving Society's.