Teen speaks after spear gun accident

SOUTHWEST MIAMI-DADE, Fla. (WSVN) -- A South Florida teen is sharing his survival story after he was shot accidentally with a spear gun in the head.

Sixteen-year-old Yasser Lopez is learning how to walk again, three months after he accidentally shot himself with a spear gun. On Friday, he returned to the lake where it all occurred. "It bothers me to come over here, because I was almost dead in these waters for a simple fishing trip," said Lopez.

On June 7, Lopez and a friend were ready to go fishing and were loading a spear gun when it suddenly fired at Lopez. The 3-foot spear went straight through Lopez' head, piercing the back of his skull. "I would see the spear. It was bothering me on the back, like it was scratching the floor and I'll feel it inside the head, so I wanted to take it out," said Lopez.

Lopez was conscious and talking when he was airlifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital. Doctors said the spear missed the major blood vessels in his brain. He underwent a three-hour surgery to remove the spear.

His father was the first person Lopez saw when he opened his eyes. "Waking up and hitting the front of the bed, when I woke up from the coma, I was hitting it with my legs, because I didn't know what was happening, and my dad told me what happened to me," he said.

Three months after that horrific accident, the teen's scar is a daily reminder of how lucky he is to be alive. "If I do ever spear fish again, very safely and with a grown up near me," said Lopez.

Lopez uses a wheelchair to get around and his walking is improving.

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