Recently in Sao Paulo Brazil a 66 year old man wrestled with a 15 foot anaconda for close to half an hour in an attempt to free his grandson from the snakes deadly crushing grip.

The boy, Matheus Pereira de Araujo, 8, would more than likely have died if his screams for help hadn’t been heard by his grandfather.

This anaconda was approximately 80 pounds. Anacondas are the largest snake in the world. They live in swamps and rivers and kill their prey by asphyxiation or drowning.

Araujo had been playing with his cousin in a creek bed on his grandfathers farm when the snake made it’s move.

“It was very fast. I didn’t have time to do anything,” the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper quoted Araujo as saying. “My grandfather is a hero — I was so afraid of dying.”

When the boy was attacked his cousin Flavio, also 8 years of age, ran to get help. Joaquim Pereira, the grandfather, had been driving home when he heard the screams of Matheus and Flavio. He quickly jumped into the ravine and wrestled with the snake, which started to coil around him as well.

“I started fighting the animal and tried to loosen its grip on the boy’s neck but the snake was too strong,” Pereira told the Bom Dia newspaper of Sao Jose do Rio Preto.

When his efforts failed he resorted to attacking the snake with stones and a machete.

“I kept hitting it with the machete but it felt like a rubber tire, it wouldn’t tear,” he said. Pereira eventually killed the snake after a long struggle, freeing the boy who needed 21 stitches to his chest where the snake had bit him.

“It was the most terrible scene that I’ve seen in my life,” Pereira said. “It was totally coiled around him while he was screaming that he was dying.”

Know anyone who’s performed a heroic act? Tell me about it.