Human Interest
U.K. Boy Thrown into Crocodile Pit at the Zoo is ‘Smiling Again’ After Multiple Surgeries
A 3-year-old boy who sustained multiple injuries after being thrown into a zoo’s crocodile pit is reportedly smiling and playing again after undergoing seven surgeries. However, he still has a long, uncertain recovery to go.
On June 18, police responded to Johnsons of Old Hurst, near Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire in the U.K., after getting reports that a child had been thrown into the crocodile pit.
A 30-year-old man from Norfolk was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder. The BBC reported that the man has learning disabilities and was at the zoo with two caretakers at the time of the incident. He did not know the boy. He was released on bail until September after being deemed “not fit for interview.”
The boy sustained injuries from the fall after he was thrown roughly 15 feet down into the enclosure and, according to The Guardian, was bitten by at least one of the crocodiles. According to a post written by his grandmother on a GoFundMe established to raise money for the family to pay his hospital bills, the child underwent his seventh surgery on Wednesday, July 15.
“Tomorrow marks 4 weeks of being in the hospital. Shortly after we arrived on the 18th of June, our son underwent a 12 hour surgery where the surgeons performed miraculous things, they were faced with tendon damage, nerve damage, blood vessel damage, broken bones and severe tissue damage in both his arms, neck, head and face,” the update reads. “Those were the worst 12 hours of our lives as before that we were signing consent forms involving resuscitation and amputation.”
Despite the uncertainty and the severity of the child’s injuries, his grandmother revealed that he’s already got some of his spirit back.
“The cheeky little boy that we love so much is talking to the nurses, playing using his feet and smiling again. We are amazed at how far he has come,” she wrote.
The post continues, “We are not at the end of our journey but are hopeful that today’s surgery will be the last for now which means if everything goes well we will be able to go home soon.”
