Family Life

Miracle boy comes back to life as family agrees to donate organs

Trenton McKinely is a miracle boy. 

Two months ago, Trenton was playing with a friend's dune buggy when an accident changed his life forever. 

Trenton was sitting in the trailer with a 4-year-old when the trailer suddenly flipped. Throwing the child onto the grass, the trailer came crashing down on his head. 

“I hit the concrete and the trailer landed on top of my head. After that, I don't remember anything," Trenton said, speaking to local media

He was rushed to hospital with seven skull fractures, and died multiple times. 

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

For the following weeks, trenton was on life support and barely breathing. Convinced that he was brain dead, his family made the difficult decision to donate his organs. 

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

A day before the doctors were due to pull the plug, Trenton started to again show signs of life. Family and medical staff were shocked at his sudden recovery. 

While under, Trenton says he felt that he was in heaven. 

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

Slowly, Trenton began to recover. He still deals with daily nerve pain and seizures. He's already had a whooping three surgeries and now has a permanent dent in his head. 

"I said I could turn sideways and put salsa in there and eat chips and dip out of my head. No more washing dishes for me!” he laughed.

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