Trenton McKinley is being called the "miracle boy" after awakening from a coma the day before doctors were set to pull the plug on him and harvest his organs donated to help five other children in need.
The 13-year-old from Mobile County, Alabama, suffered severe brain trauma in an accident and when he didn’t show signs of brain function after several days his parents signed papers to donate his organs, USA Today reported.
However, McKinley suddenly showed signs of mental cognition hours before doctors were going to turn off his life support systems.
"I was in an open field walking straight,” the teen told Fox affiliate WALA. "There's no other explanation but God. There's no other way. Even doctors said it."
The accident happened two months ago. McKinley was playing at a friend's house, riding in a small utility trailer being pulled by a children's dune buggy. The trailer flipped, throwing him onto the concrete ground.
“The trailer landed on top of my head," McKinley told WALA. "After that, I don't remember anything."
He was rushed to the USA Medical Center with seven skull fractures and immediately underwent emergency surgery.
McKinley was brought back from the brink of death four times but on the last occasion he came back with "no brain waves, a damaged brain stem" and a heart that was only beating because of the adrenalin administered by hospital staff, said his mother Jennifer Nicole Reindl in a Facebook post.
Doctors told her that "the next time his heart stopped they had to let him die," which was when the boy's parents were faced with the tough decision of whether to donate his organs.
"A man from the UAB organ donation came and talked to us in the family conference room about donating five organs to UAB children's hospital that would save five other children," Reindl told CBS News.
"The next day he was scheduled to have his final brain wave test to call his time of death but his vitals spiked so they cancelled the test," she added, describing the ordeal as a "miracle."
Now McKinley is on the road to recovery and, while it’s going to be a long journey for the young boy, he has remained upbeat about is situation.
Having sustained a dent to his head, McKinley has joked that it would make for a perfect serving dish.
"I said I could turn sideways and put salsa in there and eat chips and dip out of my head. No more washing dishes for me!” he said, per WALA.
A fundraising campaign has been set up to help cover McKinley's medical costs and his mother has been providing regular updates there about her son's condition.
Recently, she shared a photo of him sitting outside with a smile on his face and captioned it; "A smile today. From my sweet baby boy. All glory to god. ... I am so thankful for every second I get to spend my time with my son outside the hospital."
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