Despite suffering an injury that cost him three toes while on vacation at Panama City Beach, Frankie Fuller is upbeat.
On the last day of his senior beach trip Friday, the 18-year-old Thompson High School graduate accidentally had all of his toes on his right foot severed by a paraglider.
Fuller said he and his friends were helping the man gain momentum as he tried to take to the air. Along the way, Fuller said he fell on his back and his foot went into the propeller.
Doctors reattached his big toe and the toe next to it, but were unable to reattach the other three. Fuller said his doctor told him he can make a complete recovery.
"He said I shouldn't even walk with a limp," Fuller said.
In fact, there was no immediate pain at the time of the accident, just a fear of having to tell his parents, Fuller said Tuesday.
"It didn't hurt. I just looked down and they were gone," Fuller said. "I was scared how (my parents) were going to react. Other than that, I just wanted my toes back."
Fuller's mother, Joni Fuller, said his friends were quick to react and an off-duty nurse bandaged Fuller's foot until he was taken to a hospital.
Joni Fuller said while her son has been upbeat about the long recovery he faces -- he could still lose the two reattached toes to infection -- she and her husband have struggled with it.
"We both said we'd give anything for it to have been our toes and not his," she said.