Badass Little Girl Casually Fights Off Alligator Attack: 'I Knew What To Do'

If most of us found our leg in the tight, ruthless grasp of an alligator's jaws, we'd probably say to ourselves, "Well, I've had a good life, but it's a wrap."

But most of us are not Juliana Ossa, a badass 10-year-old who recently found herself in this terrifying situation, according to NBC News.

Ossa was reportedly swimming in roughly two feet of water near at a lake in Moss Park in Orlando when the alligator bit her.

The remarkable young girl fought her way out of the situation, was pulled to shore by her uncle and rushed to Nemours Children's Hospital, NBC News reports.

There was apparently quite a lot of blood coming out of her leg.

At the hospital, she was reportedly treated for lacerations and puncture wounds in the back of her left knee and lower thigh.

The alligator has been euthanized. There are roughly 1.3 million alligators in Florida.

During an interview with NBC's Today, Ossa described how she got away from the alligator.

First, she tried hitting the alligator on the forehead.

"That didn't work," she said. "So I thought of a plan they taught in Gatorland. The guy was wrestling the alligator with its mouth taped, and in this situation it was the other way around."

The 10-year-old girl then stuck her fingers in the alligator's nose "so it couldn't breathe -- it had to be from its mouth -- and he opened it, so it let my leg out," she said.

She said she was scared but "knew what to do."

On top of showing courage and quick-thinking when the alligator attacked, the 10-year-old was reportedly quite brave as the paramedics assisted her.

Kevin Brito, a paramedic who helped Essa, told WESH,

She was a tough little girl. She commented that if something is going to attack her, she has to attack back.

Experts are skeptical over why the alligator let go.

Dr. Gregory M. Erickson, a professor of anatomy and paleobiology at Florida State University, told the New York Times it's unlikely Ossa's tactic was the sole reason the alligator let go.

"If that alligator wanted to hold on, not much could have stopped it," he said.

The biggest alligators, much larger than the one that attacked Ossa, can deliver about 3,000 pounds of bite force.

Comparatively, lions deliver about 1,000 pounds of bite force.

Dr. Erickson said it was more likely the alligator failed to get a solid grip on the girl's leg.

But you always have a much better chance of getting away and surviving if you fight back, like Ossa.

"The more fight a person puts up, it's more likely that animals are not going to press the attack," Dr. Erickson said.

Regardless of why the alligator let go, it's safe to say Ossa is a very brave and intelligent young lady, and we can all be happy she's OK.

We can also be thankful alligator attacks are very rare, and there have only been 24 deaths from alligators since 1948.

Citations: 10-Year-Old Florida Girl Pries Leg From Alligator's Mouth (NBC News)