ARGYLE, Texas — “It’s definitely been a year for us,” Caleb Halvorson said in what might be the understatement of the year. The Fort Worth firefighter is a walking miracle, and so is his newborn son.

“So blessed and so lucky to be able to have him home,” Halvorson said from his home in Argyle.

Hudson Halvorson was born premature at just one pound nine ounces. He spent his first 122 days of life in neonatal intensive care (NICU).

Caleb Halvorson would spend 34 days of his own in the burn unit of Parkland Hospital after the September 3rd firefight and garage collapse that left him with second and third-degree burns over more than half of his back, dislocated his shoulder and crushed his left knee.

“It’s been absolutely incredible,” he said. “The support system that we have.”

At home now together in Argyle, with painful skin grafts healing and that leg still locked in a rigid brace, the Fort Worth firefighter and his family want you to know he’s actually thankful.

“I would go through that again to be able to come home to him and my wife,” he said of the accident and the painful recovery. “There’s so much to look forward to, and all I can do is start crying. Because I’m lik,e thank you, thank you God for letting this happen right now.”

“I keep asking, like, why does this keep happening to us? But at the same time, I’m like, thank you that it wasn’t worse,” said Haley Halvorson. “But it’s also really exhausting. Because two miracles take a lot of work,” she said with a smile.

Hudson, her first miracle, is up to eight pounds now. Caleb is bracing for more surgeries for his burns and eventual reconstruction of his knee. And he is counting on being a firefighter again someday.


“I’ve got 26 years left and so I definitely want to enjoy them and get back on the fire truck for sure,” he said of the brotherhood and sisterhood of firefighters. “And that’s what I’m excited to get back to, that really strong bond and that really strong family that you have.”

Until then Haley  – and her two miracles – celebrate. “Even the small things,” she said. “Like he rolled over.” 

“Yeah he rolled over for the first time today,” Caleb said. “It’s crazy. He’s a wiggler for sure.”

And a fighter, for sure – just like his dad. 

“It will be one heck of a story whenever he asks someday,” Caleb said. 

“When he asks about his birth story,” Haley said, “we’re like boy…sit down!”