Boy attacked by Cambridgeshire zoo crocodile ‘smiling again’ – parents

The parents of a three-year-old boy who was attacked at a crocodile sanctuary say they are “amazed” by the boy’s progress and that he is “smiling again”.

The boy was attacked by at least one of the animals while visiting Johnsons of Old Hurst, near Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, on June 18.

In a post on the fundraising page, his parents said: “Four weeks later the cheeky little boy we love is talking to nurses, playing with his feet and smiling again.”

Police arrested a 30-year-old man from Norfolk on suspicion of attempted murder after the incident and released him on bail.

The boy’s parents recalled arriving at Addenbrooke’s Hospital and experiencing the “worst 12 hours” of their lives after the attack, “signing consent forms that included resuscitation and amputation”.

They said he was injured in his arms, neck, head and face and his bones were broken.

The boy has since undergone seven surgeries, the latest of which was when surgeons completed a “nerve transplant into his arm.”

“They removed a nerve from his leg to replace part of the nerve that was missing in his left arm,” his parents said on the fundraising page, which has raised more than £67,000 so far.

“We hope that over time this nerve will settle and help our son regain some function in his left hand.

“We won’t know if the nerve graft was successful until tests are done in a few months.

“We weren’t sure our son would make it and it was the worst feeling in the world.

“We are amazed at how far it has come.”