Buddy Valastro is on the road to recovery and counting his blessings along the way.
On Sept. 23, the reality star behind the long-running TV series Cake Boss revealed to fans he had suffered a "terrible accident" involving the pinsetter for his home bowling alley.
"There was a malfunction with the bowling pinsetter, a common fix in the past, but turned into a terrible accident," Valastro's rep explained to E! News at the time. "After trying to release the bowling pin from the cage mechanism, his right hand became lodged and compressed inside the unit...Unable to remove his hand, he can see a 1-1/2" metal rod slowly and repeatedly impale his hand three times between his ring finger and middle finger."
The TV personality recalled the gruesome event during a virtual appearance for the Sept. 28 episode of Today.
"It was crazy just the way it went down," Valastro said in his first interview since the "freak accident." "I really am so proud of my sons and my brother-in-laws, who were here and really helped jump into action to help set me free and put me on the road to recovery."
Describing the sequence of events to co-anchors Savannah Guthrie and Craig Melvin, Valastro shared how his hand got wedged between a fork in the machine while a blunt rod "pierced" through his fingers and, in his words, "blew out half my hand."
"I thought I was going to faint...there was blood everywhere and I was stuck," he said. However, Valastro managed to stay calm and urged his sons to get a saw and pliers. His sons and relatives were able to work together to quickly get Valastro's hand out of the machine and off to the hospital.
While he calmy remembered the accident, the proud dad began to well up while thanking his son for leaping into action.
"I don't even know what to say," he said of 16-year-old Buddy Jr. while fighting back tears. "I'm so proud of my son. I just can't imagine that they had to go through this and they did what they did, all of them, so thank you, son."
His firstborn son told the co-hosts, "He's my dad. I had to do something."
As for the road ahead, the reality star, who is recovering from two surgeries, is ready to fight to get back to baking. "It's going to definitely be an uphill battle," he acknowledged. "The prayers and the support from all the fans from all over the world—it made me feel so special and it makes me want to fight to get better for them. It makes me want to be the man that I was."
(E! and NBC are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)