{"id":121,"date":"2022-09-01T00:50:39","date_gmt":"2022-09-01T00:50:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/?p=121"},"modified":"2022-09-01T00:50:39","modified_gmt":"2022-09-01T00:50:39","slug":"director-of-florida-wildlife-park-loses-hand-to-alligator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/?p=121","title":{"rendered":"Director of Florida Wildlife Park Loses Hand to Alligator"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">For the second time in nine years, Greg Graziani has come close to losing an arm to an alligator. The director of Florida Gator Gardens, Graziani was severely wounded after an alligator attacked him and bit his left arm earlier this month.<\/p>\n<p>Florida Gator Gardens announced in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/FloridaGatorGardens\/posts\/pfbid0egxTJKPBr437zV8G4fbTfMMkmQBNRRtzcAFAQvYZiKgfQyq6nWNKZGPL1N1k3JJNl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Facebook post<\/a> that on Aug. 17, Graziani was working with some large, captive alligators at the wildlife park, which is located in Venus. The post does not specify what Graziani was doing at the time, noting only that he was \u201cseriously injured during a routine interaction with our large alligators.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FFloridaGatorGardens%2Fposts%2Fpfbid0egxTJKPBr437zV8G4fbTfMMkmQBNRRtzcAFAQvYZiKgfQyq6nWNKZGPL1N1k3JJNl&amp;show_text=true&amp;width=500\" width=\"500\" height=\"787\" style=\"border:none;overflow:hidden\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The wildlife park went on to explain that Graziani\u2019s left arm was partially severed during the attack, and that he was immediately flown to Tampa General Hospital for treatment. At that time, his left hand was only connected by a single tendon. A full amputation seemed like the most likely outcome, but the surgeons got to work right away. They tried to reattach the arm by creating new vessels for blood flow and using metal plates to hold the bone fragments together.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat was originally scheduled as an amputation has instead been a tremendous testament to the marvels of modern medicine and the dedication of Tampa\u2019s staff at all levels, our own staff\u2019s calm, deliberate actions during a crisis, and Greg\u2019s pure grit and maneuvering during an impossibly difficult situation,\u201d the wildlife park explained on August 22.<\/p>\n<p>The surgery seemed successful at first, and doctors believed that Graziani had a chance of keeping his left hand. However, the wildlife park posted <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/FloridaGatorGardens\/posts\/pfbid02LdrDVv5uCzNMs7d9NcN174K38ngrKe71qvp2wqRTjk2MKpRGhFUPKcmUgoHPsdUrl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">an update<\/a> on Graziani\u2019s condition four days later, explaining that his hand did not recover from the crushing injury he received from the alligator.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FFloridaGatorGardens%2Fposts%2Fpfbid02LdrDVv5uCzNMs7d9NcN174K38ngrKe71qvp2wqRTjk2MKpRGhFUPKcmUgoHPsdUrl&amp;show_text=true&amp;width=500\" width=\"500\" height=\"582\" style=\"border:none;overflow:hidden\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Graziani went into surgery again on Aug. 25, the park explained, and this time surgeons amputated his left arm well below the elbow. They were also able to reroute nerves from the amputated limb, which will help if Graziani decides to get a prosthetic hand in the future.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was clear that the hand was simply not able to recover,\u201d the wildlife park wrote on Aug. 26. \u201cCrushing injuries and avulsions are the hardest injuries to reattach, and we had all of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read Next: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outdoorlife.com\/survival\/are-alligator-attacks-rising\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Four Fatal Gator Attacks in 76 Days Is a Statistical Anomaly. Here\u2019s Why It Happened<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Graziani has worked with reptiles since he was 7 years old, according to the wildlife park, and this wasn\u2019t the first time he was injured badly while working with gators. In 2013, he almost lost his right arm when removing a 7.5-foot nuisance alligator that was trapped on private property. The gator was tied and stored in a horse trailer, and when it started rolling, Graziani\u2019s arm got caught in the rope. His arm broke in several places, and luckily his 12-year-old son was there to cut the rope.<\/p>\n<p>It took more than a year for Graziani\u2019s right arm to mend, but according to Florida Gator Gardens, \u201che only came back more determined to share his passion for reptiles with the world.\u201d After the more recent gator attack that led to the loss of his left hand, Graziani remains optimistic about the future and looks forward to getting back to doing what he loves. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo today we start a new day,\u201d reads the most recent Facebook post. \u201cAs great as it would have been to preserve the hand, we are thrilled to finally have a date to go home next week and move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\" async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js#xfbml=1&amp;version=v3.2\" id=\"facebook-js-js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outdoorlife.com\/survival\/florida-man-loses-hand-to-alligator\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For the second time in nine years, Greg Graziani has come close to losing an arm to an alligator. The director of Florida Gator Gardens, Graziani was severely wounded after an alligator attacked him and bit his left arm earlier this month. Florida Gator Gardens announced in a Facebook post that on Aug. 17, Graziani [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":122,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-121","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gun-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}