LA JOLLA, Calif. (KGTV) -- For the last week, Vanessa Hunter has been by her husband's side in the hospital, as he recovers. Her husband, Oceanside Police Officer Brad Hunter was run down by a driver on June 19, during a traffic stop of another vehicle.
"It's so hard to get that call," Vanesa Hunter said. "It's that call that nobody wants."
Officer Hunter was flown to Scripps Memorial Hospital and underwent emergency surgery for a shattered lower leg and endured extensive reconstructive surgery before the medically-induced coma.
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Now that he's awake, his wife tells 10News that doctors are working to repair his leg. She says it's a reminder of how dangerous it is to be a police officer.
"When he leaves in the morning I give him a kiss goodbye and I say be safe... and I mean it," she said, laughing. "I feel it's become more dangerous to put the uniform on every day."
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She says Brad puts on the uniform without hesitation, and that doesn't surprise her. That's the man she married.
"I wish I could tell you he's not gonna go back but he would. It's one of the first things he said when he woke up from his coma," she said. "It's what makes him happy, and so in that respec, I have to support that."
