A Florida wildlife expert lost part of his left arm after an alligator attack earlier this month, which left the limb hanging by a single tendon.
Greg Graziani , wildlife park staff member at Florida Gator Gardens, a wildlife park, botanical garden, breeding and training center, was bitten on the arm during a routine interaction on 17 August, according to a Florida Gardens Facebook post.
Surgeons had to untwist Graziani’s mangled appendix six times during emergency surgery while trying to save the limb.
“We are VERY grateful we had the opportunity to try, but by Wednesday afternoon it was clear the hand simply could not recover,” he wrote the park on Friday. “Crush injuries and avulsions are the most difficult injuries to repair and we had them all.”
An X-ray of the injury showed the arm bone completely cut in two.
Graziani, who has been working with alligators since he was 7 years old, ended up losing his arm below the elbow after a nine-hour surgery last week.
“They performed a procedure to divert the nerves of the amputated limb in such a way that it helps to eliminate phantom pain and offers the option of a prosthesis”, according to the publication, which presents an image of Graziani smiling from his hospital bed.
“Thanks for all the support,” Graziani wrote in a separate post, along with several reptile emojis, including an alligator.
The wildlife enthusiast, from 53 to years, he almost lost his other arm after an alligator bite in 2013 which he needed 18 months to fully heal.
“Anytime you work with animals, there is always a risk,” the park wrote. “That is something that Greg and the people who love him have always accepted. This incident could easily have been a fatal tragedy.”
The facility did not detail the alligator attack.
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