A 12-FOOT GATOR ATE HALF MY HEAD!
Fireman’s chilling story of true grit — and pure luck
AFRANTIC firefighter miraculously escaped death when a 12-foot alligator chomped half his head off in a Florida lake — and drone footage captured the entire horrifying disaster!
Juan Carlos La Verde, 34, was filming a promo instructional video in Lake Thonotosassa, near Tampa, for an upcoming swimming event and did not notice what the overhead drone was catching — the sight of the enormous, deadly reptile steaming straight toward him!
The gator opened its terrifying jaws wide and crunched into the man’s skull, piercing his brain with its razor-sharp teeth.
But the shocked triathlete, who’s also a paramedic, had years of experience under his belt, and instinctively launched into survival mode to defeat what he later called “12 feet of prehistoric fury.”
He thrust his hands inside the beast’s maw and pried the animal loose from his crushed cranium!
Despite massive bleeding and unbearable pain, he managed to swim back to the dock — where he called 911 himself.
“All I felt was scales, teeth,” says the former U.S. Air Force Pararescue specialist.
“What I think I did — what I felt like I did — was that I immediately tried to open its jaws because I knew I was in a gator. When I felt the teeth, I immediately knew!”
After an emergency sixhour surgery that has left him with half a skull, a lopsided face and the dread of more surgery in his future, La
Verde says he feels lucky.
“If you want to see this in any other way than a legit miracle, it’s silly of you,” he says.
“That thing was huge! It wasn’t a little gator. It would be funny if it was a little gator.”
La Verde reveals what kept him going in that bloodchurned lake was his steely determination and his philosophy of life: “Sometimes in life, our plans change. And when they do, we just have to swim harder than we’ve ever swum before!”