'I thought I was going to die in my front yard,' says dad hit by RV trailer during EF-2 tornado while saving daughter

EGAN, Texas — Shawn Zeleny has always loved storms. He’s chased them before, admired them from afar, and has always wanted to see a tornado up close. 

On Monday night, the 43-year-old’s wish came true in the most unwanted way. 

“I’ve followed them before, I keep up with the radar, but this was certainly different,” Zeleny said. “It’s an awesome story, and I’m glad I lived through it.” 

Zeleny is currently at JPS Hospital in Fort Worth after an RV trailer flipped into him. On Monday, the trailer was pushed by strong winds from an EF-2 tornado that struck Johnson County near Egan. 

He has a broken nose, broken left femur, all of his ribs are broken, and his left ear had to be sewn back to his head. 

WFAA was on the scene moments after the twister touched down and saw Zeleny being taken into an ambulance. 

Shortly after that moment, WFAA learned about Zeleny’s heroism that landed him in the hospital.  

RELATED: Man saves stepdaughter from RV moments before it’s flipped by radar-confirmed tornado

When the tornado approached, Zeleny’s step-daughter, 17-year-old Brittaney Deaton, was inside that RV trailer. 

The teen lives in the trailer and works while attending school to pay it off. 

The minute the tornado warning came through Zeleny’s phone, he went to look outside to check on his daughter so he could get her inside.  

Via Zoom, Zeleny explained what happened next for the first time in his own words. 

“I opened the door, and all of the air was just sucked out of the house,” Zeleny said. “I went to the trailer’s door, and the steps were hung up on the door, so she couldn’t open it.” 

“I rip the steps away, and we start heading towards the house, but then a gust of wind hits us, and the entire trailer toppled onto me,” Zeleny said. 

“The trailer stayed on me for a second, and then it was off of me. It was a lot of pressure and then really loud in my head. Then, it was off of me. Next thing I knew, I was laying the mud.” 

Zeleny said he was conscious the entire time. 

“I never blacked out; I just looked up and saw the travel trailer disintegrated in front of me,” he said.

Zeleny lay in the mud until neighbors and family could assess his injuries. He couldn’t move his legs and had to be taken in the bed of a truck to paramedics down the road from his house, due to debris and downed power lines. 

“At first, I thought I was going to die in my front yard,” Zeleny said. “But that pity party didn’t last long, and I said I’m going to be strong. I’m not going to die.” 

Zeleny has had surgery on his hip already and will likely be in a wheelchair for weeks. 

But in the end, battered and bruised, he’s just glad that his family’s safe. 

“Any loving parent would have sacrificed themselves for their children, I would have done it for anybody, and that’s just the way I am,” Zeleny said. 

Zeleny has a goal as he heads for rehab — be at his step-daughter’s graduation in May.  

“Nothing’s going to stop me from that,” Zeleny said. “It’s just my girls in my house and me, and there’s nothing but love in that house. And there’s nothing that compares to that.”