Jennifer Nicole Reindl has a simple explanation for her young son's recovery from the brink of death due to severe brain injuries.
"It's a miracle," Reindl tells USA TODAY, citing her belief that the hand of God is behind it all.
Trenton McKinley, 13, from Mobile, Ala., was so close to death after the brain trauma from a freak utility vehicle accident that his parents signed papers to donate his organs to five separate children needing transplants.
But the day before doctors were set to pull the plug on his life support systems in March, Trenton started showing signs of mental cognition, according to WALA, a FOX affiliate in Alabama. Trenton now says he went to heaven before he was brought back to Earth.
"I was in an open field walking straight,” Trenton told WALA. "There's no other explanation but God. There's no other way. Even doctors said it."
Trenton's March accident came when he was flipped in a cart being pulled by a utility vehicle.
“I hit the concrete and the trailer landed on top of my head. After that, I don't remember anything," Trenton told the station.
Rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery with seven skull fractures, Trenton "died 4 times (and) one time for 15 min. The last time they brought him back he had no brain waves, a damaged brain stem and his heart only beat because of the (adrenaline)," Reindl wrote on Facebook.
On a fundraising page for medical expenses, Reindl noted that Trenton's "kidneys began to fail due to the lack of oxygen after his cardiac arrest."
Doctors "said the next time his heart stopped they had to let him die...or I could sign a paper to donate his organs to save five other kids... so I signed it... I knew he would not hesitate to save 5 more lives," the mother wrote on Facebook.
But Trenton pulled back from the verge in ways his mother insists has defied medical explanation. On March 29, Reindl updated her Facebook page to point out that Trenton, wearing a protective head device, had tossed baskets at the hospital-facility gym.
"Today for the first time he went to the gym and from his chair in perfect form he made 4 baskets playing basketball," she wrote. "He is now back in the room resting....praise the lord...He is healing every day has his full memory and talks about his school friends every day."
While Trenton's road to recovery will continue and be full of obstacles, Reindl is fully thankful.
"God did for my son what he did for his own....and I am so honored to have him back this is my testimony....god is good," she wrote.
