ORLANDO, FLORIDA — A 10-year-old girl survived an alligator attack by prying open the reptile’s jaws with her bare hands, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials said. <br /> <br />Juliana Ossa was with her family at Lake Mary Jane near Orlando on Saturday, May 6. She was sitting in two-feet deep water in a designated swim area, when an alligator surfaced and chomped on her knee and calf, ABC affiliate WFTV reported. <br /> <br />Remembering a trick she learned while visiting Gatorland, a theme park and wildlife reserve, Ossa poked the gator in its nostrils, then she pried the gator’s jaws open with her bare hands to free her leg. <br /> <br />Ossa was later taken to Nemours Children’s Hospital with non life-threatening puncture wounds. She needed at least 10 stitches. <br /> <br />The alligator was estimated to be 8 feet, 9 inches long. After the attack, it was spotted in the same swimming area and was captured by the Florida Fish and Wildlife officials. <br /> <br />“To get an animal with the strongest bite on the planet to let go of you is a miracle,” Gatorland representative Donald Aldarelli told WFTV. “I’m just happy that she heard it here.”
