He snapped back.
An Australian farmer says he survived being bitten by a 10-foot saltwater crocodile who tossed him around “like a rag doll” — by biting the monster reptile on its eye.
Colin Deveraux, a veteran cattle rancher in his 60s, spoke about his heroic survival in the Australian outback as he prepared to leave a local hospital where he spent nearly a month being treated for his injuries.
He had been on his way to build some fencing near his home in Twin Hill Station in the Northern Territory when he was suddenly attacked while stopping at a lake, known as a billabong, to watch some fish swimming.
“I took two steps and the dirty bastard [the crocodile] latched onto my right foot,” Deveraux told Australia’s ABC News.
“It was a big grab and he shook me like a rag doll and took off back into the water, pulling me in.”
Deveraux said at first he tried kicking the scaly predator in the ribs with his free left foot — before deciding to use his own teeth as a weapon.
“I was in such an awkward position … but by accident my teeth caught his eyelid,” the rancher recalled. “It was pretty thick, like holding onto leather, but I jerked back on his eyelid and he let go.”
Deveraux said the entire attack “happened in about eight seconds.”
Having freed his leg, Deveraux took off running toward his car — with the toothy attacker hot on his heels.
“He chased me for a bit, maybe four meters [13 feet], but then stopped,” the farmer said.
Deveraux used a towel and a length of rope as a makeshift tourniquet on his injured leg to stem the bleeding, and then his brother drove him 80 miles to the nearest hospital.
From the time of Deveraux’s hospitalization, doctors have had to repeatedly “flush” the harmful bacteria from the crocodile’s mouth and the dirty lake water that had seeped into his open wound.
He received a skin graft earlier this month and said he could feel his toes. Doctors are optimistic he will soon be able to walk out of the hospital.
“If [the crocodile] had bitten me somewhere else, it would have been different,” Deveraux said.
The farmer added that his brush with death has taught him to be more careful and aware of his surroundings.
“I’ve been walking around that swamp country too long fixing fences and living life, but it’s opened my eyes,” he said.
The crocodile that attacked the cattle producer has since been “removed,” according to Deveraux.
