Lake Placid, Australia - This reptile obviously chose the wrong prey!

Once a 6.5-foot crocodile has bitten into a victim, the chances of survival are next to none – but not for a courageous 44-year-old Australian man!

He had actually come to swim in Lake Placid near the popular tourist city of Cairns in northern Australia.

But he didn't get to splash around in the cool water for long because a crocodile was lurking close by.

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By the time he noticed the reptile, escape was no longer an option. The animal had already bitten into his head!

Most people would have been paralyzed by fear, but not this anonymous man.

He had nerves of steel: "A crocodile had bitten his head, and in his effort to remove the jaws of the crocodile he put his hands in to try and prize the jaws apart. In the process of trying to remove his hands, the jaws snapped shut on his forefinger," Paul Sweeney, one of the paramedics who treated the man after the attack, told CNN.

The man had to swim a considerable distance before he could drag himself ashore.

When rescuers finally arrived, they found the 44-year-old in a "remarkably calm" state.

The animal's teeth left wounds on the man's head, face, shoulder, and hand, but he was not seriously injured.

According to Sweeney, he was very lucky because the reptile's attack could have been fatal: "Just a few centimeters lower and we have major blood vessels ... had one of those been punctured, then it would have been a very different story"

The swimmer was extremely fortunate. He has been swimming in the water three times a week for the past eight years and intends to continue doing so despite the incident.