Published August 19, 2022 12:47pm EDT
Florida drone video captures swimmer fighting off alligator
Swimmer estimates alligator in Lake Thonotosassa, near Tampa, was 12 feet long
By Greg Norman , Pilar Arias | Fox News
Stunning video has emerged showing a man fending off an alligator attack while swimming in a lake outside of Tampa, Florida.
The drone footage depicting Juan Carlos La Verde wrestling with the alligator – which he tells TMX News was around 12-feet long – was captured on Aug. 3 at Lake Thonotosassa while he was shooting an instructional video for an upcoming event through his athletic company, Defeat-X.
"I was chomped down on this side, like completely," he told Fox13 Tampa.
The footage shows La Verde swimming from the left while the alligator approaches from the right. Once the two meet, a struggle ensues before La Verde switches direction and starts heading toward the shore.
The jaws of the gator came down on his head and upper torso. The attack lasted only seconds, but La Verde said he knew he would make it out alive.
"An unbelievable amount of faith in myself that I wasn’t going to die," he recalled. "I was going to be OK, but I needed to act for sure."
La Verde said he fought back by putting his hands in the alligator's mouth.
"She let go, and she didn’t have to let go," La Verde said.
He immediately swam to a nearby dock. Pain hit once the adrenaline wore off, and he was out of the water. He was also reportedly losing a lot of blood.
Neighbors called for help, and he was taken to a hospital as a trauma alert patient.
La Verde is a U.S. Air Force veteran and an Oldsmar firefighter. He underwent six hours of surgery due to the alligator's bite that crushed his head, broke his jaw and damaged a facial nerve.
La Verde spent eight days in the hospital. He was discharged last week.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/florida-drone-video-captures-swimmer-fighting-alligator 
