Dina Spann was floating in the Silver River with two teenage relatives and her son’s girlfriend on August 8, 2026, near Ray Wayside Park when the alligator approached the group. Her son, Zach Guerrina, a 38-year-old carpenter and father of five, later recounted that he had left his mother in the water only minutes earlier. Spann, who is retired, spotted the animal and tried to push it away with a paddle. When the gator seized her right arm and dragged her underwater, she refused to surrender. Guerrina has described how she fought back with her bare hands, attempting to hold the alligator’s mouth shut so she could create enough space to reach the surface for a breath, while also working to keep the animal from biting her legs.

During the struggle she lost part of her left ring finger before the alligator focused on her right forearm, leaving the arm hanging by a thread as she fought to break free. She managed to surface, screaming for help amid a cloud of blood. Nearby, boater John Gamache was having lunch with his father when he looked upriver and saw the alligator’s head raised well above the water, moving at full speed toward the swimmers. He immediately turned his boat toward the group. By the time he arrived the alligator had released Spann, but she was clinging to a paddleboard with catastrophic injuries. Gamache later told local news outlets that bones were poking out and blood was everywhere, emphasizing that every minute mattered as he and others worked to pull the group from the water.

Using rope from his boat as a tourniquet, Gamache helped control the bleeding while the remaining swimmers were brought aboard. The group raced to shore where first responders took over and transported Spann to the hospital. Surgeons ultimately amputated her right arm below the elbow. Guerrina has stressed that his mother remained remarkably composed throughout the ordeal, even making light of the situation later, and that her active resistance underwater bought critical time for help to arrive. Family members have described her efforts to protect not only herself but those around her during the attack.

In the weeks that followed, Spann began sharing her recovery publicly. She posted a video on Facebook showing the extent of her injuries alongside the words, “The gator got a piece of me. It didn’t get the best of me,” and noted that she was learning to laugh through the hard parts while celebrating small victories. The combination of her underwater fight, the rapid response of boaters like Gamache, and the immediate use of makeshift tourniquets is what allowed her to survive injuries that could easily have proven fatal on the Silver River that afternoon.