A Florida wildlife park director lost a hand after he was bitten by one of the alligators at the park, and he has no survived his second attack in 10 years.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission was alerted on the evening of Aug. 17 of a possible alligator attack at Florida Gator Gardens in Venus, the agency said in a statement to USA TODAY. The victim was taken to a local hospital.
The man, identified as 53-year-old Greg Graziani, “was seriously injured during a routine interaction with our large alligators,” Florida Gator Gardens said in a Facebook post.
The park said that after Graziani had a partial amputation of his left arm, he spent more than nine hours in surgery in an attempt to reattach it. Leeches were used to restore blood flow in his fingers.
But the damage had been done; the attack had left Graziani’s left hand connected by one tendon, the park said in an update, and “it was clear that the hand was simply not able to recover.” Graziani’s arm was amputated below the elbow.
“Crushing injuries and avulsions are the hardest injuries to reattach, and we had all of it,” the park said.
It wasn’t the first time Graziani had been attacked by an alligator. He almost lost his right arm to a gator in 2013. But as someone who has worked with reptiles since he was 7, the park director “only came back more determined to share his passion for reptiles with the world.”
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“He has assured us that this is no different,” the park said. “We are so incredibly grateful for this outcome. Any time you work with animals, there is always a risk. That is something Greg and the people who love him have always accepted. This incident could have just as easily been a fatal tragedy. We are so happy to be given another chance to chase our passions and live the life with those we love.”
In a Facebook post, Graziani thanked people for the support.
Alligator attacks do happen in Florida, but not at an alarming rate. The state has an alligator population of more than 1 million. The state fish and wildlife commission said in November 2021 that there were 442 unprovoked alligator bites in Florida from 1948 to 2021, an average of six a year.
Of those bites, 26 were fatal, meaning there was one fatal injury nearly every three years in the state. In 2022, four people have been killed in alligator attacks nationwide, two of which were in Florida.
The wildlife commission said it was investigating the attack. The park did not give details on how the bite happened but said the alligator was uninjured and will stay at the park “as a valued member of the zoo.”
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