Mexico crocodile attack: Parents fly out to support recovering twin sisters

The parents of British twin sisters who fought off a vicious attack by a ten-foot crocodile have flown out to Mexico to support them.

Sean and Sue Laurie flew out of Heathrow to Mexico City today to support twins Melissa and Georgia after a horrifying crocodile attack on June 6.

Melissa was dragged under the water and put into a terrifying death roll as the predator tried to drown the 28-year-old, who had not been warned by ‘rogue’ tour guides that a lagoon she was swimming in was infested with them.

She only survived because her twin Georgia fought off the ten-foot predator- punching it repeatedly in the face as she dragged her sister to safety. 

Sue, 62, told MailOnline: ‘I don’t want to go to Mexico – you hear terrible stories about how dangerous it is – but the girls need their mum. 

‘Georgia has been fantastic and did everything she could for her sister. But she needs support. The needs the comfort of her family.

‘She tries to put on a brave face but really she is quite fragile. Georgia wants me to come there. She wants her mum. So obviously I am going.’

Melissa suffered terrible injuries from the attack including deep bites to her body, legs, hands and wrists – some of which turned septic.

She also suffered a suspected punctured lung and was put in a medically induced coma to aid her recovery.

But she has been brought round now and is able to speak to Georgia who visits her regularly at the private hospital where she is being treated.

Her husband Sean added: ‘Obviously we want to do everything we can for our girls. We can be by Melissa’s bedside but we can also help in getting her home.’

It comes after sister Georgia spoke for the first time about punching the croc after it grabbed her twin.  

‘It was trying to take her away,’ Georgia said. ‘I punched it in the nose with both fists and it felt hard, like hitting a table, but it scared it off.’  

‘No one warned us there were crocodiles there at all. We hadn’t been drinking, there was no alcohol involved. 

‘We were just there for a chill-out. Melissa swan off by herself and got into trouble. I didn’t know what was happening but I swan towards her.’ 

As she got closer Georgia, a qualified diver, noticed the reptile viciously attacking her sister.  

‘I saw her getting jerked around and I saw a croc’s head which was about two feet long. The croc swam off, but kept coming back,’ she said, the Sun reported.  

‘That’s when it grabbed her by the leg and got her in a death roll. She went round and round and it was trying to drag her away.

 ‘I was pounding it, and that’s when it grabbed me and bit my arm. I bashed it with the other hand and it let me go. That happened three times. 

‘The croc battle seemed to go on a long time but adrenalin kicked in.’  

Melissa was then pulled from the water by Georgia with the help of Moises Salinas, a 16-year-old deck hand on a tour boat named Espatula Rosada.

Salinas jumped into the shallow murky waters along the Manialtepec River and helped pull Melissa onto the boat before rushing her and her sister to a waiting ambulance 20 minutes away.   

Once Melissa was on the boat, the extent of her injuries became clear, Georgia said. 

‘She had puncture wounds everywhere but wasn’t bleeding out. She was drifting in and out of consciousness,

‘The thing that worried me was she was coughing up blood and saying, ‘I’m drowning, I’m drowning’. It was scary, and she screamed too.

‘I thought of how I had seen her face down in the water for a long time, so I was worried how much water she had swallowed.’ 

Once at hospital, Georgia explained: ‘the doctors were worried about her lungs, because they thought she may have got pneumonia from an infection.

‘I had to sign some papers saying treatment could go ahead, which included an induced coma. That was scary, because it seemed touch and go.’

Melissa was woken from the coma last week and in a short voice message from her hospital bed told MailOnline: ‘I am extremely grateful that I came out of this alive.

‘And that I had Georgia fight my side for me. So I am very happy for that.’

Melissa suffered terrible injuries from the attack including deep bites to her body, legs, hands and wrists – some of which turned septic. She also suffered a suspected punctured lung.   

Mum Sue Laurie told MailOnline: ‘Georgia sent us a picture of her in hospital bed in intensive care and we’ve seen Melissa for the first time.

‘She is looking quite a bit better. She has traces of black eyes and a scratch on her face.

‘She still has monitors on her fingers – she’s still all wired up. And she has an oxygen tube going into her nose. But it’s great to see to see her.

‘She is trying to smile but it’s obvious that she is in a lot of pain.’

The family have also received the first medical bill for Melissa’s treatment, which dad Sean has described as ‘eye-watering!’ at £11,000. 

A GoFundMe page set up for the family has so far raised over £43,800. . 

The sisters had been back-packing around the world. They left the UK in March and planned to return in November. The twins parents are flying out to Mexico to support the girls next week.