13-year-old regains consciousness after parents sign organ donation forms

A YOUNG boy who was presumed brain dead, woke up moments before his parents agreed to have his organs donated.

A 13-year-old boy who was said to be suffering severe brain injury defied odds when he regained consciousness after his parents had signed papers to donate his organs.

Trenton McKinley, of Mobile, Alabama in the United States, was hospitalised two months ago after a small utility trailer he was in flipped over.

“I hit the concrete and the trailer landed on top of my head. After that, I don’t remember anything,” Trenton told Fox 10.

Trenton suffered seven skull fractures from the accident. His parents recalled doctors saying their son “would never be normal again”.

“All I saw was a stretcher with his feet hanging out. He was dead a total of 15 minutes,” Trenton’s mother, Jennifer Reindl, told Fox 10. “When he came back, they said he would never be normal again. They told me the oxidation problems would be so bad to his brain, that he would be a vegetable if he even made it.”

Trenton was barely breathing in the days following the crash, Fox 10 reported. His mother ultimately decided to sign papers to donate Trenton’s organs that would benefit five children who needed transplants.

“Five kids needed organs that matched him,” Reindl said. “It was unfair to keep bringing him back, because it was just damaging his organs even more.”

A day before doctors were going to take Trenton off of life support, the 13-year-old began showing signs of brain activity and movement. Trenton began breathing on his own and woke up speaking full sentences in late March, his mother wrote on a Facebook fundraising page.

Trenton still has a long road to recovery and suffers nerve pain and daily seizures. He has had three brain surgeries and will have another procedure to reconnect the missing piece of his skull.

Trenton said he believes he went to heaven before he came back to life.

“I was in an open field walking straight,” Trenton recalled. “There’s no other explanation but God. There’s no other way. Even doctors said it.”

This article was originally published in Fox News and has been republished with permission.