NEW ALBANY, Ind. (October 27, 2024) — Cameron Fathauer is considered a miracle by everyone. Everyone except for himself.

“It’s a miracle for everyone else but not for me because I don’t remember it,” Fathauer said.

Nine years ago, the then 17 year-old Fathauer was hit by a car while riding a longboard outside of his parents’ home.

“I shattered the windshield of the Lexus and was immediately in a coma,” he said.

One-third of his skull was lost in the accident. Fragments of his skull, skin, and hair were embedded into the shattered windshield.

The impact was so great that his body landed 20 feet away from the collision.

“One of my shoes went 60 feet up into a tree. It was found weeks later,” he said, while describing the impact.

Fathauer was airlifted to a hospital in Indianapolis and spent two-and-a-half weeks in a coma. Doctors diagnosed him with a third-degree traumatic brain injury.

Experts warned that he would remain in a vegetative state for the rest of his life. Or if he did wake up – he would have the mental capacity of a young child.

But the prognosis was wrong, Fathauer woke up. His recovery progressed so rapidly that he was discharged from rehab six months ahead of schedule.  

“I woke up and had to relearn just about everything—how to walk, talk, and do everything over again,” he said. “Most importantly, I had to relearn the name of my fiancée, Chelsea.” 

Fathauer proposed to his now-wife, Chelsea, just a month before the accident. When he woke up from his coma, all memories of their relationship had been wiped clean.

But despite the circumstances, the couple stayed committed to each other.

“My dad said, ‘If you don’t want to move forward, no one would blame you if you wanted to walk away.’ I looked at him and said, ‘I don’t care if I have to push him in a wheelchair; I don’t care what our future looks like as long as it’s together,’” Chelsea said.

The couple went through with their marriage just six months after the accident. 

“She lived out the marriage vows before they even started,” Fathauer said. “She’s been so kind to me, so gracious and merciful from the beginning.” 

A couple of months later, the teenager who was predicted to never regain high-level thinking skills graduated from high school, went to college, and eventually graduated from the Maurer School of Law.

But the recovery was anything but easy. Fathauer dealt with depression and suicidal thoughts after his recovery, which he documented on his personal blog. 

“For me, accepting that this is what happened to me and that this is what I’ve gone through is what empowered me to get better,” he said.

He says faith and family is what helped him out of the depths of his depression. 

“There were times when I was so depressed and so suicidal that I really feel like I experienced the Lord’s mercy in my life,” he said.

Fathauer now works for Matt Schad, the same New Albany attorney who represented his case in 2015. 

Fathauer documented his miraculous recovery in his first book, called “Saving the Subject.”

The book details the faith and support that helped him reclaim his life.

“[The book] is how I’ve processed my recovery after the injury,” Fathauer said. “The key is not me writing about my feelings, it’s me writing at my feelings.”

“Saving the Subject” is available for purchase here.

Fathauer will be delivering a speech on Oct. 29 from 12-1 p.m. at Baier Hall, located at 211 S. Indiana Avenue in Bloomington.