A Florida man underwent surgery after a brutal encounter with an alligator recently, according to WFLA.
JC Defeats, an Oldsmar firefighter, was swimming in Lake Thonotosassa on August 3 while shooting an instructional video for his company Defeat X. Drone footage shared with the news station caught the moment a 12-foot-long gator rushed at him, chomping down on his head.
“I felt the equivalent of a telephone pole hit my face and then because of my stroke, I felt the scales, then I felt the teeth, so I knew what I was in,” he told reporters.
JC Defeats recalls being inside the huge predator's mouth for 12 seconds, the force crushing part of his skull and breaking his jaw.
“I heard my jaw snap and I just continued swimming," he recounts.
When the alligator released the Florida man, the victim swam to a nearby dock and was later rushed to the hospital. JC Defeats suffered several bone fractures in his jaw, had to undergo a craniectomy, and part of his right frontal lobe was removed. He'll have to go through more surgeries, but the survivor wants to keep serving his community.
“He’s always thinking of others even though the unthinkable was happening to him,” Christine La Verde, his wife, told reporters.
"The story is about a miracle and also a call to action," the firefighter concludes. "Find the joy, however that looks like to you, that’s my challenge to you find it."