Leomar Narvallez is lucky to be alive after a crocodile clamped down on his head and dragged him beneath the water at New River Park. The twenty-nine-year-old Guinea Grass resident says he was swimming early Sunday morning when the attack happened without warning. He fought to break free, pulled himself to safety using a tire hanging from a rope, and waited, bleeding heavily, until relatives reached him by canoe. Narvallez later received nearly thirty stitches at the Northern Regional Hospital and was released the same day. Now recovering at home, he says he is sharing his story as a warning to others, especially children who regularly swim in the area, because he believes the crocodile is still lurking near the popular river spot.
Leomar Narvallez, Crocodile Attack Survivor
“I went in the river; I was swimming and that when I feel like something grab me in my head. And that’s when I feel like wa lee shaking. Like you know whenever something but you. The crocodile shake my head like two time. So in my mind I just ask da weh dis because I never my expect that fi happen. And then I just [ush my hands on top of my head and I just feel the crocodile teeth and I just have to try mek I lose my head from his mouth. But that happen in a couple seconds. My head was in his mouth like six seconds. I never tek long in that situation. I just wasn’t to give a safety awareness like how crocodiles are territorial animals and that’s how they gain territory, by attacking. And like ot done taste blood it might attack someone else and they no wa have the same fate as me. Honestly than God I am living right now.”
Dr. Marisa Tellez says if a crocodile comes close, stay calm, avoid splashing, and move steadily to shore without turning your back.
Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.
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