A brave and heroic mom has spoken out about the struggle to free her toddler from the jaws of a crocodile and revealed she saved the boy by sticking her fingers up the reptile's nose, the Daily Mail has reported.
The incident occurred when 30-year-old mom Maurina Musisinyana took her two young sons on a fishing trip with their aunt in the Runde River, near the Gonarezhou National Park in eastern Zimbabwe.
You can see more on this story in the ZBC News report below:After Musisinyana left her two children playing in the shade of an umbrella on the riverbank, she was suddenly alerted when her sister-in-law started screaming.
Dropping her fishing gear, Musisinyana sprinted to her children, only to find the umbrella drifting in the river and her three-year-old son, Gideon, being dragged towards the water's edge by a crocodile.
Knowing she had to act fast, the doting mom says she recalled a lesson she had learned from her elders: that if you press hard on a crocodile’s nose it can begin to suffocate and lose its strength.
Detailing the unthinkable incident to ZBC News, as per The Herald, Maurina recalled:
"We only realised [Gideon had been snatched] when the crocodile was already dragging the baby into the river.
"I immediately rushed to the scene. My son had been shielding himself from the sun with an umbrella, so upon arrival at the scene, I noticed the umbrella floating in the river and went straight there to locate him and the crocodile.
"Upon finding the crocodile, I pressed its nose hard — a tip I learnt from the elders long back, that if you suffocate a crocodile from its nose, it loses its strength and that is exactly what I did."
The brave mom shoved her fingers into the beast's nostrils, and using her other hand, was able to free her son's head from its jaws.
Related - This is the moment a wildebeest narrowly escaped the jaws of crocodile:The crocodile then proceeded to bite Maurina’s hand before swinging away towards the water, but fortunately, Gideon was released.
The mom added: "Even to this day, I still do not believe that I rescued my son."
The three-year-old suffered facial injuries that made breathing difficult, so both mother and son were rushed to a nearby hospital.
Gideon has since received treatment and is said to be responding well to medication.
Per National Geographic, Nile crocodiles are known man-eaters, and "will attack almost anything unfortunate enough to cross its path".
It adds: "Firm numbers are sketchy, but estimates are that up to 200 people may die each year in the jaws of a Nile croc."
We would like to wish the family all the best in their recovery from this incident.