Boy wakes up from diagnosed brain death a day before his organs were to be donated

Trenton McKinley, 13, came back from brain death
(Image credit: iStock)

Trenton McKinley has been dead more often than most 13-year-olds. The Mobile, Alabama, teenager was first dead for about 15 minutes after he suffered seven skull fractures when a friend's dune buggy trailer flipped over. "I hit the concrete and the trailer landed on top of my head," McKinley told WALA-TV. "After that, I don't remember anything." Doctors told his parents that even if McKinley woke up, "he would never be normal again," said Jennifer Reindl, his mother. "They told me the oxidation problems would be so bad to his brain, that he would be a vegetable if he even made it."

The parents signed paperwork to donate their son's organs to five children in Birmingham who needed them, but a day before the doctors were going to remove McKinley from life support, he started registering signs of cognition. "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 canceled the test," Reindl told CBS News on Sunday. "From no brain waves to now walking and talking and reading, doing math. A miracle."

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.