Yahoo Finance Mexico crocodile attack: Mauled twin speaks for the first time
A British woman who was attacked by a crocodile in Mexico has spoken out for the first time.
Twins Melissa and Georgia Laurie, 28, were swimming in a lagoon with a tour group when Melissa was dragged underwater.
Georgia managed to save her sister by punching the 10-foot reptile repeatedly in the face and pulling her to safety by her hair.
Melissa, a zookeeper, suffered deep bites to her body, legs, hands and wrists and was placed in an induced coma.
She has subsequently been brought out of the coma and is improving after developing sepsis.
Speaking from her hospital bed in the surfing resort of Puerto Escondido 10 miles away Melissa said she was “so happy” to be alive.
“I am extremely grateful that I came out of this alive,” she told the MailOnline.
“And that I had Georgia fight my side for me.”
Speaking about the day of the attack, Georgia said the pair had been aware there may be crocodiles in the lagoon.
“I actually said to the guide, ‘this looks like a place where crocodiles make their home’.”
But their guide insisted it was safe to swim, the BBC reported.
The guide is understood to be a German national who was not registered with the tourism authority and has since fled.
Lalo Escamilla, a boatman and local ornithologist who waded into the shallow waters to help the twins, believes the region has been taken over by inexperienced guides.
“They’re not guides,” he said.
“They’re not federally-approved experts, they don’t know this place. That’s the problem.”
A GoFundMe page set up by the twins’ older sister Hana to raise money to help cover medical costs for the twins and for their parents to travel out to Mexico has raised more than £43,000.
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