COLLIN COUNTY, Texas — Hunter and Tiffany Sexauer have been talking for years about building their forever home. They found the perfect place right next to their current home in unincorporated Collin County.
Everything was on schedule until Hunter took a terrible fall from the top of the ladder.
It happened one April night, it was also the day of their son's birthday. Hunter was on the ladder putting some finishing touches on their forever home when the ladder slid to the side and he fell to the ground thirty feet onto the concrete.
"It was our worst nightmare," said his wife, Tiffany.
"I've climbed these ladders a billion times and I've been in construction four generations," said Hunter.
His body broken, Hunter recalls to WFAA he was slipping in and out of consciousness, but he was able to call his daughter.
"I kept telling myself, 'Hunter, you gotta move. You gotta get up, you gotta move,'" he recalled.
Hunter Sexauer was care-flighted to Medical City Plano. Sadly, people falling off ladders is one of the leading causes for emergency room visits.
"Somebody who falls 30 feet, to be able to walk, it's really a miracle," said nurse manager Alex Adams of Medical City Plano.
Hunter spent a month in the hospital. He'll need rigorous rehab after bilateral femur fractures, a broken hip, broken jaw and ribs, and even orbital trauma that left him blind for three days. Sexauer even has a Harry Potter-like scar his kids tease him about.
But he'll take on any type of injury knowing the alternative. Hunter says while he was laying on the ground, for what felt like ten or fifteen minutes, he thought he was going to die
"I figured it was over. I figured I was not going to see their beautiful faces ever again," he said. "I'm ready to get back. I've got a house to build for my family," Hunter said.
The family is thankful for the firefighters, EMS, care-flight crews, and the hospital. Hunter is a fighter. He'll fully walk on his own in five months but his goal is to do it in three months. He's just eager to get back out there to build the home.
"I can care less if it takes ten years to finish it, because we have him," said Tiffany, crying.