Pinellas deputy who suffered traumatic brain injury in tanker crash returns home: ‘He’s a fighter’

Injured deputy returns home

Kailey Tracy reports.

TAMPA, Fla. - Family and friends of a passenger on a flight from Atlanta to Tampa on Friday didn’t know just a few months ago if he’d make that flight home.

The passenger, Pinellas County Deputy Dakota Dellechiaie, suffered a traumatic brain injury in October. He and his wife, Angel, have been living in Georgia, where he received care at a specialized rehabilitation facility.

Pictured: Pinellas Deputy Dakota Dellechiaie with his wife, Angel.

"It's debilitating," Angel Dellechiaie said. "I mean, I really thought I was going to bury my husband," she said as her husband teared up and kissed her cheek.

The backstory:

The deputy was driving to work at around 6 a.m. on October 1 when, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office said, a propane truck was in the road, backing into a driveway and the deputy’s patrol vehicle collided with the truck. His Chevy Tahoe ended up under the tanker truck’s trailer.

"He went up there unconscious in an air ambulance," Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said. "That morning, first morning in the hospital, what was going through my mind was we're going to be planning another line-of-duty death funeral."

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The father of five suffered a very significant traumatic brain injury and spent months at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta.

Pictured: Pinellas Deputy Dakota Dellechiaie.

"I gave birth without him. I celebrated four of my kids' birthdays without him. We moved to Georgia without our kids," Angel Dellechiaie said. "From the first day of the accident, seeing him now, it definitely surpasses any expectation I ever thought his recovery would look like."

"It’s just a miracle and amazing. And there were times in those first few days where the doctors were telling us 'he wasn't going to make it.' So, he's a fighter and his wife's a fighter," Gualtieri said.

Local perspective:

On Friday, PCSO, the Tampa Police Department and Tampa International Airport staff gave him a hero’s homecoming at TPA.

READ: Armed woman shot by deputies came close to critically injuring Pinellas deputy: Court documents

"It was surprising," Deputy Dellechiaie said. "It's hard to just describe everything. Everybody that was here, they made a huge impact to everything that, you know, I needed. I appreciate everybody."

"I think this day really just means it's the end of the very, very dark tunnel we went through. I mean, it's not the end. He still has a long recovery to go. He's still working every day. He'll still go to therapy and many appointments, and there's a lot of recovery to still take place, but the darkness is over, if that makes sense. The darkest parts are over. So, it's a breath of fresh air," Angel Dellechiaie said.

What's next:

Deputy Dellechiaie will now go through occupational, speech and physical therapy at Tampa General Hospital and rehab centers in the area. He said he’s most excited to sleep in his own bed.

The Source: The information in this story was gathered using statements made by Pinellas County Deputy Dakota Dellechiaie, his wife Angel Dellechiaie, and Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri.

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