A 10-foot crocodile laid unconscious on a surgeon’s table Tuesday, March 16, 2009, while surgeons that hovered over tried to to make a miracle happen.

His face had been crushed by a car. The crocodile couldn’t open his jaw and he couldn’t eat for three months.

He was taken to Miami Metro Zoo, where everyone had expected him to die. Douglas Mader, of the Marathon Veterinary Hospital, gave him another chance. He reconstructed the reptile’s face.

”We have a certain responsibility to our endangered, native species,” said Ron Magill, a spokesman for Miami Metro Zoo. “It was either he die on the table today, or die a horrible, slow death.”

The croc was drugged up. Mader placed two metal rods between the animal’s eyes that reached down to the end of his nose, and one on the other side. Then, they put 41 metal screws into his hide. This helped to keep the skull and snout together and in place. The operation took four hours.

In the best-case scenario, Mader hopes he will be able to open his mouth and eat again.

Magill said the staff doesn’t expect the croc to live long. If he does, it will be a miracle.

The staff finally gave the crocodile a name, RoboCroc