Gerrard Kaonga
A 13-year-old woke up from a coma after a serious incident and issued a message to his mother who had been by his side for weeks.
13-year-old Dakota ‘Cody Trenkle Jr. was missing for over three days and there was fears the worst had happened to him last month.
He was last seen skateboarding in Goose Creek Lake, only to be found at the bottom of a ravine after initially going missing on Sunday July 27.
His brother discovered his skateboard a half mile from their home and police authorities were able to find Dakota lying in a foot of water with the help of blood hounds.
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He had gone three days without food or water.
He was then airlifted to St. Louis hospital and placed in a medically induced coma with severe injuries.
This included a brain bleed, severe head trauma, a fracture of the skull, weakened kidneys and needed a ventilator to breathe.
This is in addition to pneumonia and other infections from being out in the wilderness for so long.
For two weeks, Dakota’s mother, Stephanie Neely, had waited by his bedside hoping for an improvement and he began to wake up on Friday August 8.
It was the following day when he was strong enough to send a sweet and heartbreaking message to his mother using American Sign Language.
He signed the gesture for ‘I love you’ and his mother spoke to People explaining how much this message meant to her.
She said: “That moment was pivotal to me. It’s made the last couple weeks of stress, heartache, hope, gratitude, sadness, and pain worth it because that small gesture meant my boy was coming back to me.”
Posting in a Facebook page dedicated to Dakota’s recovery, it explained his improvements over the days.
On Sunday, August 10 Dakota was off the ventilator and a post read: “He is doing so well!!
“We still have a long recovery road ahead, but this is huge progress!!!!!!”
Stephanie also spoke about the difficult road ahead for her and her son.
She said: “He can’t walk due to injuries and also loss of muscle mass during his time in the coma.
“He is struggling to talk for long periods of time out of pure exhaustion, the pneumonia, and his other infections he is fighting.
“His brain injuries are still very prominent, and are being monitored very closely.
“We are very grateful for his progress and pleased we are finally moving in the right direction.”