A Florida man looked death into the eye and has lived to tell the tale.

Juan Carlos La Verde went swimming off a dock in Lake Thonotosassa, Florida to shoot a promotional video for his outdoor adventure company earlier this month when he was attacked by a 12-foot alligator.

Drone footage captured the August 3 encounter between the gator and the 34-year-old man, the huge reptile clamping its jaws around La Verde’s head.

Luckily, La Verde was able to escape and swim ashore, but not without suffering a partially crushed skull and broken jaw that left him hospitalised.

"It was just one large bite. I heard my jaw snap and then I just continued swimming,” he told Tampa-based WFLA-TV.

After the encounter, La Verde was rushed to the Tampa General Hospital where he underwent a six-hour surgery to repair and reconstruct the damage to his skull and jaw.

Despite his near-death experience, La Verde is maintaining a positive outlook.

"This story's about a miracle and also a call to action - find the joy, however that looks to you,” he told the television station.

Alligator attacks are reportedly very rare, even in Florida which has a very sizeable population of the reptile.

According to the Florida Conservation Commission, there were 442 unprovoked alligator bites or six annually in the state from 1948 to 2021. Of those bites, 26 were fatal, the commission reported.

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