MIAMI (WSVN) - A celebrity chef is on the road to recovery after being badly burned.
Ralph Pagano returned home Thursday after being released from Ryder Trauma Center.
He suffered burns on more than 30 percent of his body during a kitchen explosion while opening a new restaurant in Bimini.
Pagano was airlifted to the burn center back in June.
He’s gone through intensive rehab to regain the use of his hands and his ability to walk again.
Pagano said he will be forever grateful to the medical staff and therapists.
“There were things they helped me with that I never thought as a 40-plus-year-old man would ever ask another man to do,” he said. “You know, just functions of going to the bathroom and just being able to stand up — things I couldn’t do on my own.”
Pagano has already had four skin grafts and said he knows there’s still a long way to go.
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