Man loses arm to alligator

CHARLESTON, S.C., Sept. 17 (UPI) -- A South Carolina man was listed in critical condition after a 12-foot alligator tore his arm off at the shoulder while the man was snorkeling in a lake.

Bill Hedden remained hospitalized at Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, S.C., after being attacked Sunday by a 600-pound alligator in Lake Moultrie, reported WCSC-TV, Charleston.

Hedden scrambled up the lake's bank to a picnic area, where five off-duty nurses slowed the bleeding and kept him breathing.

"He was very conscious and asking for his wife, to call his wife, to make sure she knew what happened to him," Jo Masauding, one of the nurses, told WCSC.

Authorities killed the alligator, removed the arm from its stomach, placed it on ice and took it to the hospital but no word had been released Monday on whether doctors were able to reattach it.

The alligator attack was the first on Lake Moultrie, where posted signs warn alligators are in the lake, WCSC reported.