College student wakes from coma as his family prepared him for organ donation

It’s a Christmas miracle!

An Arizona coma patient woke up just hours before doctors discussed taking him off life support, ABC News reports.

Sam Schmid, a 21-year-old student at the University of Arizona was thought to be brain dead after he was critically hurt in a Tucson car accident in October which killed his friend and roommate.
"I feel fine. I'm in a wheelchair, but I am getting lots of help," Schmid said recently, as he continues his recovery and is now able to tell his remarkable story.

Schmid’s mom, Susan Regan, might have her son home for the holidays.

"Nobody could ever give me a better Christmas present than this -- ever, ever, ever," Regan, 59, said.
The injuries Schmid suffered could not be treated by the local hospital so he was airlifted to the Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Joseph's Medical Center in Phoenix where doctors performed surgery for a potentially lethal aneurysm.

"His recovery was really remarkable considering the extent of his lethal injuries," said Schmid's doctor, Dr. Robert Spetzler. "It looked like all the odds were stacked against him."

Despite the prognosis, Speltzer decided to keep Schmid on life support after the MRI scan did not show any fatal injuries.

Speltzer did not want to give the family false hope so the hospital broached the idea of organ donation. However Schmid then began to respond, holding up two fingers at the command of the doctors.

"I tell everyone, if they want to call it a modern-day miracle, this is a miracle," said Regan, a Catholic. "I have friends who are atheists who have called me and said, 'I am going back to church.'"


http://www.nydailynews.com/life-styl...ticle-1.995469