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Then on Aug. 19, he and his wife Debbie were in a horrific car crash on Interstate 75 when a woman rear-ended them going about 55 mph and shoved them under a semi.
He lost a couple teeth, his nose was broken and some other injuries and his wife suffered a concussion, breaks and bruises. He said everyone who has seen a picture of their crunched car said it was a miracle they survived. He believes in miracles.
“I can respond to it one of two ways, I can go into a corner and curl up into a ball and just, ‘Woe is me, life is so miserable,’” Haussler said. “But I’ve got kids, I’ve got grand kids to motivate me and I want to live until I die. I don’t want to die before I’m dead. I want to be as positive as I can.”
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The Mayo Clinic website says scleroderma is a group of rare diseases that involve the hardening and tightening of the skin and connective tissues — the fibers that provide the framework and support for the body.
In some people, scleroderma affects only the skin. But in many people, like Haussler, scleroderma also harms structures beyond the skin — such as blood vessels, internal organs and the digestive tract.
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