Boy who nearly lost arm overseas returns home

MIAMI (WSVN) -- A local teenager is now back in South Florida following a bad accident that almost cost him his arm in Central America.

Thirteen-year-old Brian Valera's right arm was nearly sliced off after he shattered a sliding glass door after running into it while visiting friends in Guatemala on Thanksgiving Day.

After taking a ride in a special medical plane Tuesday night, he now lies at Jackson Memorial Hospital to finish his recovery. If everything goes well, he could be out of the hospital as early as Thursday.

After doctors reattached his arm in Guatemala, Valera spoke from his hospital bed at JMH about his ordeal. The accident happened while he and his mother, Ana Delmonte, visited a friend's house. "I tripped, I fell, and then I was in the house, and then I got back up and I went outside, and I looked at my arm, and I saw it bleeding," he said.

His arm had been nearly sliced off by a shard of glass. It was hanging on to his body by only 40 percent of his flesh. "He had it open from the bicep, about halfway up the bicep, down around like maybe a tennis ball [size], and then down to the elbow," Delmonte said, pointing the teen's bandaged arm.

The cut was so severe, Delmonte said, that you could see his bone. "It was open," she said.

The mother of the boy said he acted very brave throughout the ordeal. "He wasn't screaming," Delmonte said. "I think he was more scared for me and how I was feeling at the moment. He kept telling me, 'Mom, I'm not going to die. I'm going to be here for you, don't worry,' and he was holding his arm, and we were just standing there, and the blood was all over both of us."

Valera is making a quick recovery. He is already able to wiggle his fingers. But the financial costs to his family is another challenge to overcome entirely.

Delmonte and her family had to pay an $18,000 hospital bill before they would let her son go. On top of that, because of his injury, he could not take a regular commercial plane back. The family had to hire a private medical plane to transport him home, so several if his family members pooled together money, took out loans and charged some credit cards. "We paid them with credit cards, and they went to go get him. It's about $15,000," said the boy's uncle, Duardo Delmonte.

Valera's mother is an employee with the Miami Beach Police Department. They have set up a fund to help the family pay some of that money back. A link with more information can be found above.

If everything goes as planned, Valera, a music student who plays tuba and saxophone, could have full use of his hand and arm in six to 12 months.

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