FORT MYERS: The teen who lost his hand in an alligator attack spoke publicly Friday for the first time since Sunday night’s accident.
Tim Delano spoke about the attack that left him without his left hand, even joking a bit and being thankful that he is right-handed.
Delano was swimming in a canal in Golden Gate Estates when an 11-foot alligator pulled him underwater.
Delano was able to free himself from the gator’s “death roll” by punching the reptile with his right hand.
“I shortly realized that this is for real, I opened my eyes, I saw the gator’s face doing the death roll. I could see the bottom of his mouth,” he said. “I just took my hand and screamed. You could see my muscle, bone moving around.”
He says immediate shock took over. Delano and his friends jumped in his truck. They called 9-1-1, and then he made one more important phone call.
“I said, ‘Hey mom, my hand got taken off by an alligator. I’m on my way to the hospital. I love you, goodbye, hope to see you again,'” Delano said.
He was taken to Lee Memorial Hospital in Fort Myers, where attempts to reattach his severed hand were unsuccessful because doctors feared his hand was infected.
Delano says the constant reminders – even from his parents – make it hard for him to cope with what happened.
“They were sitting across from me and all I could look at was their left hand and just started breaking down,” he said.
But Delano says he still has something to look forward to. His doctor is working to get him a prosthetic hand.
“That’s what is giving me hope and I can move on with my life a little bit, but just one step at a time,” he said.
Saturday, the Palmetto Ridge Marching Pride – the band Delano was in – is holding a fundraiser car wash for him.
It’s from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at “E’s Country Store” at Immokalee and Oil Well Roads in Golden Gate Estates.