When given impossible odds, most people would just be resigned to accept them. Not Linda. She was holding out for a miracle.

Her son Trenton was 10 years old, playing football with kids in his neighborhood, when he was hit by an impaired driver. His leg was broken. But much worse than that, he had no brain activity.

“They told us if he made it he had about 72 hours [to live],” Linda says.

Days passed. 72 hours came and went. Trenton was still alive.

Doctors told her Trenton’s brain likely wouldn’t recover. She refused to believe it. Instead, she poured all of her energy into making sure he’d recover.

She filled his hospital room with cards, chess, and checkers so he would feel at home.

“We noticed when we were there doing all of those things, his heart rate was beautiful,” Linda says.

While his doctors tried to dissuade her from harboring false hope, Linda knew the changes she was seeing were nothing short of miraculous. But weeks passed. He wasn’t interacting with doctors. He still couldn’t move.

Then his teacher and classmates sent him a note saying how much they missed him. When he heard the message, his mom says he smiled, opened his eyes, and tried saying his teacher’s name.

He had done the impossible. He woke up.

That’s when he was transferred to La Rabida. More obstacles were ahead, but he was now in the very best place to receive the treatment he needed: physical therapy and visits with our mental health experts. While our rehab team helped Trenton relearn how to walk, our psychologists helped him move forward from his trauma. He kept a journal with his thoughts.

While at La Rabida, he didn’t have to go through it alone. He and another patient at the time, Derrick, became fast friends, and would spend their days hanging out together in the Child Life Pavilion. His family formed a special bond with his former doctor who often went out of her way for Trenton, even gifting him insoles for his shoes so he wouldn’t have to walk with a limp.

Despite his trauma, Trenton says his memories of La Rabida are only happy ones.

When he was finally discharged he was walking again with a cane. He could talk and was also using his hands well. He transitioned right back to school.

Now in college and on the Dean’s List at Governor’s State University, Trenton is a monthly donor to La Rabida. When he heard his mom was making her annual donation to the hospital, he told her he wanted to do something, too. He’s been giving ever since.

“I want the La Rabida staff and the La Rabida patients to know that it is important to be there for one another,” Trenton says.