But after five minutes of pure shock, 'something kicked in and told me to be calm,' he told People, 'because at that point I knew I was stuck. 'I thought I was going to faint,' he later admitted on Today. 'I've reset it a hundred times,' Buddy explained to People eight days after the incident. But this time, 'I guess I looked away, and then my hand got pinned.' His dominant palm compressed inside the apparatus, he said he watched in horror as a one-and-a-half-inch metal barb 'pushed right through the middle of my ring finger and my middle finger' several times.Īs blood started gushing ('It looked like a Halloween movie'), he froze, realizing there was little he could do. 20.Īn avid bowler with his own alley inside the Montville, N.J., home he shares with wife Lisa Valastro and kids Sofia, 17, Buddy III, 16, Marco, 14, and Carlo, 10, Buddy was fixing a malfunctioning pinsetter when his right hand got lodged inside the machine. That blissful ignorance came to a sharp and painful end on Sept. 'You don't realize how much you can really move your hands in different directions,' he noted. But these days, he's singularly focused on regaining his unique abilities. Up until now, he hasn't had to put too much thought into, say, how he washes his face or deftly spreads buttercream on one of his confections. 'So I've been trying to use it a little bit more, but just in different settings and different times.' While buttoning his pants and cutting food remain a struggle, 'I can hold a fork like a little kid would,' he told People in November.

4, the 44-year-old is trying to appreciate the sweetness of each small victory. But as he blows out the candles on another birthday cake Mar. For the past five months, he's approached plan A with the same tenacity he once applied to mastering his dad's signature sfogliatelle treats.Īfter four surgeries and seemingly endless physical therapy, Buddy still has numbness and limited mobility in two of the fingers in his right hand.

Buddy valastro hand