Paralyzed Dad in Wheelchair Builds Elaborate Bedroom for Daughters: 'It's a Huge Emotional Reward' (Exclusive)

After Dan Kotter was left paralyzed in a construction site accident in 2013, he was determined not to let life in a wheelchair stop him from “making it as a father.”

In 2013, Daniel Kotter was helping a friend build a house when the girder he was standing on — 35 feet in the air — began to sway.

“I was like, ‘Oh, shit,’” Kotter, 46, tells PEOPLE exclusively. “I took a few steps. That’s the last thing I remember. And then I woke up in the hospital.”

The accident left the once-active construction worker from West Haven, Utah, paralyzed from the waist down, with extensive injuries including a lacerated spleen, a collapsed lung and a broken pelvis.

“The hammer was thrown behind my back, right in the middle of my tool belt,” he recalls. “That’s the normal place carpenters put their hammer, and I fell into that area. My hammer was there and the impact caused my L-1 vertebrae to explode.”

As his wife Andrea — who met Dan while he was in the hospital recovering from the accident — tells PEOPLE, “After his injury, he searched all over YouTube to try to find other people who were paralyzed and who could give him hope and inspiration to he could still live a decent life and do the things he loved to do. And he couldn’t find anything there at that time.”

“The things he found were actually very hopeless,” Andrea, 42, tells PEOPLE. “He says, ‘Is this my destiny?’ So we had a dream to start publishing content.”

Dan Kotter and his daughter Marley, 2.

Courtesy of Andrea Kotter

Andrea began posting about the couple’s life on the TikTok account, The Wheelchair Dad, sharing clips of their life together as a blended family. (Dan has daughters Mikayla (17) and Quinn (12) from a previous marriage; Andrea has sons Noah (16) and Uriah (11) from a previous marriage, and the couple has two daughters – Maisie (4) and Marlee (2). , via in vitro.)

But their channel blew up when Andrea — who manages the channel — shared a video a week ago of an elaborate playroom-style bedroom that Dan designed and built for Maisie, Marlee and Quinn.

The video has had more than 23 million views – something Andrea called a “Christmas miracle”.

Dan Kotter.

Dad in a wheelchair/TikTok

“Every time I really think about it, I get choked up,” Dan tells PEOPLE of the playset bedroom. “It makes me feel more useful, more fulfilled as a father, because I can give my children something that I could do before as a father.”

“One of the hardest, saddest things that carries me through the years is like, ‘God, it’s like I want to carry my daughter in the house.’ So it’s fantastic to be able to do that and see their faces and their excitement and disbelief. It is a huge emotional reward as a man and as a father.”

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And this season was especially difficult, as the couple struggled financially after medical bills and services for other family members in need. With maxed-out credit cards, “we’re in a bind,” Dan says. “I don’t know what else to do, so we can do Christmas.”

Since the video appeared, Andrea has been able to compile an Amazon wish list for their children – and more than 63 gifts have been purchased.

But the biggest benefit of their viral fame is scoring a few points in the eyes of their children.

“I showed our older guys this video after it went viral,” Andrea tells PEOPLE. “Both of them were like, like, jaw dropped, and like, ‘Oh my God, he’s so cool.'”

Dan and Andrea Kotter and their blended family.

Courtesy of Andrea Kotter

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Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education