Trenton McKinley’s parents signed the authorization for organ donation and at that moment the 13-year-old boy began to recover
Trenton McKinley. 13 years. Mobile, Alabama.- The entire United States is talking about him. The boy was dead. More specifically: he was brain dead. She remained like this for days after a severe accident, until finally the parents, torn by pain, decided to make the final decision. It was a formality, but a piece of paper that no one wanted to sign. Resigned by fate, they signed the organ donation papers. They wanted his little Trenton to continue to live somehow. At least in someone else’s body.
However, immediately after signing the papers, Trenton was resurrected. He regained consciousness. And to surprise the medical world, that he could not understand what was happening.
The fatal accident occurred two months ago at the home of a friend of the boy’s in Alabama. Trenton was aboard a dune buggy trailer when, at a certain point, his friend slammed on the brakes, the trailer spun around and caused a double “fatal” blow to the little boy.
He was rushed to USA Medical Center for immediate surgery. There was no need to lose a single moment in trying to save the child, although it seemed an absurd task due to his state. “I hit the concrete and the trailer landed on my head. After that, I don’t remember anything,” Trenton told Fox News.
“All I saw was a stretcher with his feet dangling. He was dead for a total of 15 minutes. When they resuscitated him, they told me he would never be normal again. They told me the oxygenation problems would be so bad for his brain that he would remain a vegetable if he managed to survive,” said his mother, Jennifer Reindl.
The following days, Trenton was diagnosed with brain death. He was barely breathing and was helped by a machine that assisted him continuously. They were the most difficult moments in the life of his parents, who did not know what to do. Would they disconnect their little one from the artificial assistance that was keeping him alive? Would they let him go?
The internal debate was fierce. The external between the two, more understandable. Trenton had already undergone three brain surgeries and there was nothing to suggest that he could get out of his hopeless state.
Reindl knew that organ donation would be a life-saving solution for children who were waiting for a lung, heart or liver of the same characteristics. And he was also aware that the longer they delayed the decision, the more those organs would deteriorate.
“Five boys needed organs that matched those in Trenton. It was unfair to try to bring him back,” the woman told that news network. They both signed the approval and waited: the next day they should disconnect it.
But that same day, once the papers were signed, the boy began to show signs of consciousness. He was “coming back” from Heaven, as the minor and his parents like to think. “There is no other explanation than that it was God. There is no other. Even the doctors said that,” Reindl said.
The road, however, is long. Although Trenton is improving daily, the steps he takes are not long, but short. It is a continuous struggle to recover and return to being who he was, something that also surprises professionals who see his evolution as a case study.