WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The seasoned hunter was losing blood from an alligator bite, fading in and out of consciousness and contemplating death as his wife struggled to connect with 911 and direct rescuers to their remote location in a swampy wilderness area.
When a 10-foot alligator took hold of James Boyce’s right leg and wouldn’t let go, Boyce and his wife were three miles from their truck in the J.W. Corbett Wildlife Management Area,which connects to the DuPuis Wildlife Management Area, a span of 34 square miles in northern Palm Beach and southern Martin counties.
“I’m in the middle of a swamp bleeding to death,” said Boyce, 46. “I planned on dying there.”
But a fortunate rescue by fellow hunters in a swamp buggy, and the makeshift tourniquet they fashioned out of belts and zip ties, saved Boyce’s life, said Jorge Vega, a trauma surgeon at St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach.
“The tourniquet helped minimize blood loss,” Vega said. “He might have bled out in the field. It was survivor’s instinct.”
The Boyces, of Palm Beach Gardens, were out on a rainy morning last Saturday to hunt deer when a 10-foot gator chomped down on James Boyce’s right leg, below the knee. The reptile was on land, not in the water.
“All I felt was like I got an electric shock,” Boyce said. “I just screamed.”
Boyce said he and the gator made eye contact. “He’s looking at me and starts pulling me back, dragging me,” he said.
After being dragged about five to 10 feet, Boyce got hold of his shotgun and repeatedly smashed the gator in the face with it. It let go but came back at Boyce, this time grabbing hold of his ankle and boot.
Boyce said he wanted to shoot the reptile to get free but was afraid he’d end up blowing off his foot in the alligator’s mouth.
He was taking aim when the reptile retreated, he said.
Blood was “spraying everywhere,” Boyce said. “I knew it was bad, I just knew it.”
Boyce removed his belt and cinched it around his thigh like a tourniquet.
He next instructed his wife, Terisa, to remove her belt, fasten it around his leg, stand on his thigh and pull it as tight as she possibly could.
She then struggled to get a cell signal and finally managed to connect with a 911 operator. But describing their isolated location would cause more confusion and delays.
After about two hours, Boyce said he began to lose hope.
“I gave up,” he said. “We made our goodbyes.”
Before he faded into complete unconsciousness, Boyce told Terisa to raise his leg up as high as possible and keep it up until help came. He recalled how “blood gushed out” of his boot when she lifted his leg.
A trauma hawk helicopter pilot eventually spotted the Boyces but couldn’t land anywhere near them.
That’s when another family of hunters took notice of the circling helicopter. Someone on board appeared to be trying to get their attention and was giving directional hand signals, said Danny McClelland, 33, of Jupiter Farms.
“He led us right to where we needed to go,” McClelland said Tuesday.
When McClelland got to Boyce, he was passed out and clearly losing a lot of blood, McClelland said.
The avid sportsman and hunter grabbed some extra long zip ties from his swamp buggy and cinched those around Boyce’s leg along with the belts.
McClelland chalked up his quick-thinking tourniquet technique to “red neck ingenuity.”
“I’m really, really glad we were where we were. It’s kind of amazing,” he said. “It felt real good to be there; to give him a hand.”
Boyce came to long enough to catch a glimpse of his savior. “I saw Danny’s face and I’ll never forget that,” he said.
By the time the helicopter landed at St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach, it was about 1 p.m., nearly three hours since the first call to 911.
Boyce was rushed into surgery. Luckily, the bite below his right knee was limited to the skin and soft tissue. No ligaments or muscles were severed. The alligator’s teeth left puncture wounds on his thigh, Vega said.
In a wheelchair with his leg bandaged, Boyce was discharged from the hospital Tuesday and is expected to fully recover.
“They got me out of there alive,” Boyce said, finding himself at a loss of adequate words to express gratitude.
“There’s nothing I can say to thank anybody,” he said. “What are you going to say?”