PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. (WSVN) -- A south Florida boy is lucky to be alive after finding himself in the jaws of a cold-blooded killer last weekend.
WSVN reports 6-year-old Joey Welch had a close call with an alligator and has the They are survival scars from the grip of the alligator's jaw to prove it.
"It must have been this wide. This must have been about each edge of his mouth," the youngster said. "The alligator went... and grabbed my arm and I couldn't get out."
Friday afternoon,
Joey and his dad were supposed to go canoeing in Boynton Beach last Friday when Joey wandered off and stumbled into the water.
That's when Joseph Welch heard his son's frantic screams. He wasn't prepared for what he saw. An alligator with its jaw around his son's small body.
"So I ran in to the water... started punching the alligator on top of the head as hard as I could," Welch said.
It wasn't until a Good Samaritan rushed over and kicked the alligator in the stomach, while Welch was punching the animal in the head, that the beast let Joey go.
"Fortunately, the alligator did eventually release and I was able to my son out of the water," Welch said. "I immediately heard this blood curdling scream coming out of him, to see that an alligator had latched on to his right arm."
Joey was rushed to a nearby hospital with only minor injuries.
The boy's mom believes there was an angel watching over her son during the death-defying scare.
"Why my son has an arm today. Why he doesn't have puncture marks," questioned Jackie Welch. "It's a miracle."
