American boy wakes up after being declared brain dead
A teenager in Alabama who was declared brain dead regained consciousness a day before his life support was due to be withdrawn.
Trenton McKinley, 13, suffered severe brain trauma in a car accident from which doctors believed he would not recover.
His parents were told his organs were a match for five children who needed transplants, and they had already signed the paperwork agreeing to donate them when their son showed signs of life.
The teenager suffered seven skull fractures in March when he fell from a car trailer which overturned and crushed his head in Mobile, Alabama.
Trenton's mother, Jennifer Reindl, said her son had undergone several rounds of surgery, suffering kidney failure and cardiac arrest.
At one point, she was told he would not recover.
"He was dead a total of 15 minutes," Ms Reindl told CBS News. "All I saw was a stretcher with his feet.
"When he came back they said he would never be normal again."
Ms Reindl said added that she agreed to sign donation papers when she was told her son's organs could save five lives.
"That also ensured that they would continue to keep Trenton alive to clean his organs for the donation," she said.
"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."
His mother called his recovery "a miracle", saying the teenager has been walking and talking and even reading and doing maths.
Trenton is now going through a slow recovery process at home.
He needs several more rounds of surgery to rebuild his skull and still suffers seizures.
He said he believed he was in heaven while he was unconscious.
"There's no other explanation but God," he said. "There's no other way that I could have came back."
