The sister who saved her twin from being ripped apart by a crocodile in Mexico has spoken of her heroism, saying, “It was fight or flight and you fight for the ones you love”.
Georgia Laurie spoke on Friday as her identical sibling, Melissa, remained in Puerto Escondido’s Angel del Mar Hospital recovering from her injuries.
The 28-year-old told how she did not realise the severity of her injuries until a nurse examined her after the twins were rushed to hospital on Sunday.
Wearing a heavy bandage on her right hand, Georgia explained it was due to the adrenalin pumping around her body that she failed to notice she too had been attacked.
During the attack, she had been focused on saving her sister, who suffered severe injuries to her hands, arms and chest.
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(Image: REX/Shutterstock)
“It wasn’t until the nurse opened my fist to clean my hand that I realised that it had been slashed too,” Georgia said.
For four days, Melissa had been in a medically induced coma to aid her recovery but awoke on Thursday.
She has contracted the potentially fatal condition sepsis following the attack.
The girls’ mother, Sue, said of her wounds that “her worst injuries are in her lungs” as “she was half-drowned” during the attack.
Melissa was savaged in a river close to the Manialtepec Lagoon.
She, her sister, and 21 other tourists were taken there by an unlicensed guide claiming to have been told the waters in the area were safe to swim in.
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(Image: REX/Shutterstock)
They each paid 90p to travel by van to El Guayacan restaurant on the edge of the lagoon, where the tour started at 4pm on Sunday.
However, the river is a nesting area for crocodiles using the mangroves to hide their eggs.
According to Guillermo Silva, a civil protection coordinator who is investigating the attack, the sisters had swum around 250 metres upriver, further away from the beach where the other tourists were.
(Image: REX/Shutterstock)
Melissa was then taken in the reptile’s jaws, which dragged her underwater and tried to drown her with a ‘death roll’.
After initially losing sight of her sister, Georgia swam to the aid of her twin, repeatedly punching the crocodile in the head before dragging her sibling by the hair to a boat.
Witness Gerardo Escamilla Perez, a certified guide, heard her desperate cries for help as he showed another group the lagoon.
He told how he saw “bite marks, the marks of teeth. Her head was covered in blood. They thought the crocodile was nearby and would attack again.”
Georgia insisted on helping carry Melissa to the tour boat, and Perez called 911.
He said her head was slumped back, and the blood was dripping down to the floor of the vessel.
It took 25 minutes for the boat to arrive back at El Guayacan restaurant and an awaiting ambulance.
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Speaking at the £13-a-night hostel where she is staying, Georgia, from Sandhurst, Berkshire, described the rescue.
She said: “It was fight or flight, and you fight for the ones you love.”
Earlier, Georgia, who is working as a sales rep for a driving school, spoke of her sister’s condition.
“She is doing really good,” she said.
(Image: Getty Images/Cultura RF)
“They took the tube out of her. She has been on her own very well.
“However she can’t talk because of the soreness in her throat from the tube.
“They [medical staff] said that when they were explaining the procedure to her before they did it that she comprehended and understood everything.
“She recognised me and knew who I was.
“She seemed happy to see me, and she is doing much better.”
Well-wishers have donated almost £44,000 to the family through a GoFundMe page to help with medical costs and flying the parents out to see the twins.