{"id":696716,"date":"2026-07-17T13:57:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T13:57:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/696716\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T13:57:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T13:57:14","slug":"boy-attacked-by-cambridgeshire-zoo-crocodile-smiling-again-parents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/696716\/","title":{"rendered":"Boy attacked by Cambridgeshire zoo crocodile &#8216;smiling again&#8217; &#8211; parents"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The parents of a three-year-old boy who was attacked in a crocodile enclosure say they are &#8220;amazed&#8221; at the progress he is making and that he is &#8220;smiling again&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The boy was visiting Johnsons of Old Hurst near Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, on 18 June when he was attacked by at least one of the animals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In a post on a fundraising page, his parents said: &#8220;Four weeks later and the cheeky little boy that we love so much is talking to the nurses, playing using his feet and smiling again.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Police arrested and bailed a 30-year-old man from Norfolk on suspicion of attempted murder after the incident.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The boy&#8217;s parents recalled arriving at Addenbrooke&#8217;s Hospital and experiencing &#8220;the worst 12 hours&#8221; of their lives after the attack, &#8220;signing consent forms involving resuscitation and amputation&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">They said he received injuries to his arms, neck, head, face and suffered broken bones.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The boy has since had seven surgeries, with the latest being surgeons completing &#8220;a nerve graft on his arm&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;They harvested a nerve from his leg to replace part of the nerve that was missing in his left arm,&#8221; his parents said on the fundraising page, which has so far raised over \u00a367,000.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Over time, this nerve will hopefully embed and help our son to regain some function in his left hand. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We won&#8217;t know whether the nerve graft has been successful until tests can be carried out in a few months&#8217; time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We were unsure if our son was going to make it and that was the worst feeling in the world.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We are amazed at how far he has come.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The parents of a three-year-old boy who was attacked in a crocodile enclosure say they are &#8220;amazed&#8221; at&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":696717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-696716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=696716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/696717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}