13-year-old out of hospital a month after ravine rescue
ST. FRANCOIS COUNTY, Mo. - Cody Trenkle, 13, is back home after being rescued from a ravine more than a month ago.
"You did it, dude!" Stephanie Neely said as she embraced her son, Cody, after walking out of Ranken Jordan Pediatric Bridge Hospital on Friday.
Cody has been asking to go home ever since he woke up from a coma in early August.
"They took way too much of my blood for me to want to stay here," he said with laughter on Friday.
On July 27, Cody went missing after going out to ride his skateboard in St. Francois County. The community spent days searching for him.
When he was found three days later, it was discovered that he had fallen 240 feet down a ravine. He suffered from multiple skull fractures, brain bleeds and lacerations all over his body. Cody spent 11 days in a medically induced coma at Cardinal Glennon. Neely never left his side.
"Focus on the positives. Even find the small silver lining at the end of the day and for us that's always been, 'Hey, let's get you home as soon as possible so we can get Cody back to being Cody,'" Neely said.
Cody also never dwelled on the negatives.
"I can't really remember what happened after I crashed. All I know is I survived and that's the best part of it," he said.
After he was released from Cardinal Glennon, he was transferred to Ranken Jordan for rehabilitation. When he was released Friday, he was moving around well with just a bandage on one knee. But his treatment is not over.
Neely says he will still have more physically, occupation and speech therapies. The family has set up a GoFundMe page to help with his continuous medical needs.
"He's a fighter. Just him having that will power to be home and be a normal teenage boy again---that's what really drove him," Neely said.
He definitely already sounds like a normal teenage boy again. FOX 2 asked Cody what he will do when he gets home.
"I'm going to lay down on not a hospital bed. Maybe open the refrigerator and check my own food stock," he said with a smile.
The investigation continues into how Cody ended up in the ravine.
