Two Florida Teens Attacked by Alligators in Less Than a Week

July 12, 2012 — -- Two teenagers have been attacked by alligators in a five-day span while swimming in Florida, one of them losing the bottom half of his right arm in the nearly fatal encounter.

Kaleb Towles, 15, was spear-fishing with his grandfather last Thursday at Keaton Beach near Tallahassee. The teen was reportedly swimming in water 3 feet deep when a 10-foot-long gator came out of nowhere.

"The alligator came from my left and bit me across my chest," Kaleb said.

The alligator released his grip. Towles has recovered from the attack, as will Kaleb Langdale, who lost his lower right arm in an alligator attack Monday but not his spirit.

A 911 call made seconds after a different 10-foot alligator attacked teenager Langdale reveals the quick thinking made by the teenager and his friends, whose split-second decision-making helped save his life.

Langdale and two of his friends were swimming in the Caloosahatchee River in Moore Haven, Fla. Monday when temperatures were hitting triple digits. Langdale was swimming ahead of his friends, about 30 yards from the bank, when one of them yelled, "There's a gator."

At that point, Langdale turned around to find an alligator only a few feet away from him.

"When the gator's about right here from me, I grabbed that skin up underneath him trying to control him, and he just kept going," Langdale told ABC News. "I pulled his head up and I wrapped my legs around him and then he just went and dove while I was just trying to hold onto him. But he did a death roll and knocked me off."

The gator then dragged the teen under the water, but Langdale managed to break free and start swimming away. It wasn't long before the gator caught up to him, again.

The gator pulled him down another time, and Langdale was ultimately able to pull himself free, although he lost the bottom half of his right arm in his struggle for his life.

"He came up out of the water like Superman or something, waving to us saying, 'Hey, my arm's gone, call an ambulance," Langdale's friend Matt Baker said.

On the 911 call, Langdale's friend is heard explaining the emergency.

"Fred. Are you all right, Fred? I'm calling," his friend can be heard shouting. "A gator just got my friend in the water. ... Ma'am, we need an ambulance on the other side of the river."

After Langdale was able to get out of the water, he tried to use anything to stop the bleeding -- including spider webs found along the river bank -- while he made his way back to his car.

The teen's mother, Felinda Langdale, rushed to the scene, where she was soon told by the police that Langdale was "fine, really fine."

While Langdale was being treated at the hospital, authorities caught and killed the alligator to retrieve the teen's arm. By the time the arm arrived at the hospital, however, too much time had passed to reattach it. Surgery to close his wounds was successful.

Langdale was fitted for a prosthetic arm Wednesday, and this morning, his family is raising money for his medical expenses, launching a fundraising site.

"I'm just happy that I'm still alive and my buddies are still alive," he said.

The family of Kaleb Langdale has started an account to accept donations on his behalf. Click here to donate.