After Parents Sign Organ Donor Papers, 13-Year-Old Recovers

Alabama's Trenton McKinley suffered brain trauma in freak accident
By Newser Editors,  Newser Staff
Posted May 7, 2018 6:03 AM CDT
After Parents Sign Organ Donor Papers, 13-Year-Old Recovers
   (Getty/Sudok1)

Things were looking so dire for 13-year-old Trenton McKinley of Mobile, Ala., that his parents signed the papers to donate his organs to five other kids. But a day before doctors were to take him off life support, Trenton began showing signs of recovery from a traumatic brain injury, reports WALA. Now he's shooting hoops during rehab. "It's a miracle," mom Jennifer Nicole Reindl tells USA Today. Trenton's ordeal began two months ago, when he was riding in a cart being pulled by a dune buggy, and the cart flipped. "I hit the concrete and the trailer landed on top of my head," Trenton tells the Alabama TV station. "After that, I don’t remember anything."

Reindl wrote on a Facebook fundraiser that her son suffered seven skull fractures requiring multiple surgeries, and that doctors were detecting no brain activity over several days. At that point, they made the decision to donate his organs—"I knew he would not hesitate to save 5 more lives"—until a final test of brain waves came back positive. Trenton is recuperating at home, and he suffers from nerve pain and daily seizures. But he's thankful for his recovery, and tells WALA that he credits something beyond the hospital. "There's no other explanation but God," he says. "There's no other way." (More recovery stories.)

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