LAKELAND — A person could say Daniel Curto has nine lives. If that is the case, the Lakeland resident has four left.

Curto, 68, no stranger to brushes with death, still considers himself lucky.

“I’m still here,” Curto said.

Just this year, Curto has had to face the infection MRSA.

But his first brush with the ever after happened in 1964, when the then 23-year-old was an employee at Ford Motor Company in New Jersey.

At the Ford plant, Curto’s job was unlocking freight cars and loading car spindles. While moving a couple tons of car parts through the facility, Curto did not see a hole at the bottom of the ramp. When the dolly hit the hole, a basket filled with a ton and a half of car parts fell directly on Curto.

“I was in the hospital for seven months,” he said. “The priest came twice to give me last rites.”

The ton and a half of steel gave Curto a fractured skull and a concussion, busted out all of his teeth, along with various other broken bones throughout his body.

Curto was later told that it took 20 minutes to move the car parts off his body. Even after the accident, Curto continued to work at Ford and was employed there for 15 years.

Curto was born in Perth Amboy, N.J., in 1941. He would live in New Jersey until 1978 when he moved.

After leaving Ford, Curto struck out for South Florida. While driving a taxi, Curto found his next place of employment.

By picking up a man that owned Florida City Exotic Animals, Curto had a job with him by the end of the ride. He helped pick up purchased animals and took care of everything from orangutans and chimpanzees to camels and llamas.

“I was the overseer. I built cages and made sure the animals were fed and picked them up when he purchased them,” Curto said. “It was a fantastic job.”

Curto spent four years with the exotic animal dealer before the owner passed away.

Contemplating his next employment move, Curto decided to apply at Homestead Air Reserve Base, since he had ties to the military.

Instead of finishing high school, Curto joined the United States Marine Corps and spent two years in the military. While in service, he also earned his GED.

He would spend eight years as a building maintenance mechanic before Hurricane Andrew hit.

When Hurricane Andrew rumbled across South Florida, Curto was working part time with another exotic animal dealer and spent the time leading up to the impact crating animals.

By that time it was too late to brace his home for the hurricane.

“I knew it would be bad,” Curto said.

He, his wife, his parrot, Luigi, and two dogs barricaded themselves in the bathroom.

“I held on to the bathroom door and the windows blew off, the roof blew off,” Curto said. “At the end there was nothing left worth salvaging.”

Curto and his wife packed up and moved to Missouri, but Curto was shortly back in Homestead helping clean up the debris at the air force base.

After eight months cleaning up the base, Curto was offered a job at Moody Air Force Base.

“That’s how I wound up in South Georgia,” Curto said. “But I’m still a Jersey man. I’ll never lose the accent.”

Curto’s children still live up North, one in New Jersey and one in New York.

Curto spent 10 years at Moody before he retired.

His home is filled with movies, books and music. The original goal, Curto said, was to retire on a houseboat in the Florida Keys with good music, good books and good movies.

Curto said he has more than 2,000 movies and more than 1,500 CDs.

Though Curto has trouble reading, Stephen King is his favorite author and his favorite book is “Carrie.”

“I’ve got every book Stephen King ever wrote,” he said.

At 9 years old, Curto was diagnosed with selective dyslexia. Though the disability made school difficult, Curto said he has never stopped learning.

“Everything I’ve learned, I’ve learned by people talking to me or showing me,” Curto said.

That is why people should not think that they can’t do something, because they can, if they only try, Curto said.

“I’m living proof of that,” he said.

Curto said his favorite musical artist is Pink Floyd, though he has recently started listening to Allison Krauss and Union Station.

“I like country, jazz, blues, rock,” Curto said. “I’ve got a variety of everything.”

Curto’s love of music has been a lifetime affair. He even attended one of the most infamous music festivals in history.

“In 1969 I was at Woodstock. It was unbelievable,” Curto said.

Curto and a couple of the guys he worked with decided to take off and see what the festival in upstate New York was all about.

He said when Janis Joplin came on the stage, the entire crowd, more than 500,000 people, fell silent.

“That’s an experience that will never happen again. The music never stopped,” he said.

Curto estimates that he has been to more than 200 concerts in his life.

His life experiences have made him realize exactly what a body can take and still survive, Curto said.

In 2003, neck problems saved Curto’s life.

Curto went to get a check-up to see what was wrong with his neck.

Before 2003, Curto said he hadn’t been to a doctor in almost 18 years.

The doctor found the cause of Curto’s neck trouble and cancer in his right lung.

Curto had two degenerated disks in his neck, a condition that would need surgery, but first he would have to undergo chemotherapy and radiation to eradicate the cancer.

Curto spent four years in cancer treatment before his body was strong enough to take the surgery to get his neck fixed. Even though he was stronger, due to only having one good lung, Curto had a 50/50 shot at surviving the surgery, he said.

“They replaced the two degenerated disks in my neck with titanium steel and five screws,” Curto said.

He said the tumor in his lung was the size of a softball.

“It goes to show that it pays to get a physical,” he said.

He will have been in remission for four years come June. To make sure the cancer doesn’t come back, Curto has a CAT Scan every four months.

“They say if you are in remission for five years you pretty much got it licked,” Curto said.

His younger brother was recently diagnosed with lung cancer, and Curto has enlisted some of his physicians to write words of encouragement and help to him.

Since 2003, Curto estimates that it has cost almost a million dollars in medical expenses to keep him alive. Luckily, insurance and a small pension help cover some of the costs, but Curto still owes thousands for radiation and chemotherapy treatments.

“Every time I go under I don’t know if I will come back,” Curto said. “I take one day at a time. If tomorrow comes, fine. If not, I can’t worry about it.”

Since February, Curto has undergone five surgeries related to MSRA.

MRSA, methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, is a strain of staphylococcus aureus bacteria (staph) that’s resistant to the antibiotics used to treat it and can be fatal.

What started out as a pimple has now forced Curto to begin making almost weekly visits to the doctor in Valdosta again.

Curto spends his free time reading, watching television and hanging out with his fellow Hurricane Andrew survivor, Luigi.

Curto has had Luigi since 1988.

“I got him when he was 5 years old. He will be 34 in July,” Curto said.

The Amazon parrot’s previous owners had two small children who did not like the bird. One even broke his wing after throwing something at him, Curto said.

The mother of the children finally called Curto one day and asked him if he wanted him.

Fifteen hundred dollars later, Luigi was Curto’s.

“I’ve made Luigi an honorary Italian,” he said.

Curto tries to take Luigi on a walk around Banks Lake every day.

“People call me the bird man of Lakeland,” he said.

Curto is ever optimistic about his previous experiences and his future.

“I’m lucky, a very lucky man. He could have had me 45 years ago, but he didn’t take me,” Curto said. “He could have had me again in 2003 or in 1992 and just this past year, but God’s not ready for me yet.”