A 68-year-old man is in a stable condition after being bitten by a crocodile. The incident occurred after his sailboat capsized in Florida’s Everglades National Park.

According to park officials, the rare incident happened at the Flamingo Marina when the man, named by local news outlets as Rodrigo Constain, capsized his Sunfish sailboat in the marina basin just five minutes into his afternoon’s sailing. He jumped into the water to right the vessel, when the crocodile grabbed his leg from below.

Constain was left with a laceration to one leg that required medical attention.

Speaking to Miami’s 7News from his hospital bed, Constain recalls how he “tried to open the crocodile’s mouth” with his arms, but did not have the strength. “Then, he just opened his mouth, and I released my leg,” Constain says.

“I tried to reach the boat to climb in, but I said to myself, no, I cannot do that. If I try to climb up, he’ll grab me again,” Constain continues. “So I put the boat against my back and pulled it with a rope…and swam there so I could be rescued.”

Constain says he is grateful to be alive. “I am in pain, but nothing like that matters because the experience was so hard; I feel good that I am here, living, alive.”

Data from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission highlight that it is rare for an American crocodile to bite a human. Speaking to AP, the commission confirmed that the only other documented case involving a crocodile biting a human happened in 2014.

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