A Florida gator park employee almost lost a hand when a 900-pound alligator bit him during a demonstration.
Will Nace, a 22-year old volunteer at Native Village wildlife sanctuary was performing a trick with an alligator for dozens of audience members, the Daily Mail reported.
The incident occured during a trick in which the handler attempted to tap the large reptile on the nose before subduing it.
"[My] hand happened to be right in front of [the gator's] face, so it lunged up, grabbed my hand and bent it backwards and bit down," Nace told WSVN-TV, according to the Daily Mail.
"It wasn't the alligator's fault," Native Village co-owner and alligator handler Ian Tyson, said. "[Will found] himself in that situation. He knows that this is a wild animal that he's dealing with. He got himself into a bad spot."
The alligator lunged at Nace before he was able to tap it on the nose, which would have been part of the trick.
"The alligator lunged out of the water ... and when this happened, [Nace] wasn't able to back himself out of the way quickly enough," Tyson said.
The alligator attempted to pull Nace into the water and go into the deadly "death roll."
"I held on, basically, because he decided to roll one way,'" Nace said , "'He pulled me back all the way in the water, rolled with me. I was completely submerged underwater with him, and then by the time he came back ... out of the water, he'd let go."
The gator broke Nace's arm in two places and caused several lacerations which are at a high risk of infection due to the high bacteria content in alligators' mouths.
"I just wasn't on my 'A' game yesterday," Nace said.
The Florida man is expected to remain in the hospital for at least another week, and could require skin grafts if infection sets in.
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