An Illinois mom ‘came back from the dead’ after an e-scooter accident left her brain ‘hanging out of’ her head.
Savanah White, 28, and her seven-year-old son Malakye were crossing an intersection on July 24, 2024, when a car knocked them off their e-scooter.
White smashed her face on the ground, breaking 26 bones and leaving part of her brain sticking out from her forehead.
The injury left her ‘clinically dead’ after her heart stopped for more than a minute due to a lack of oxygen to the brain and the brain being unable to send signals to her heart.
At one point, a chaplain was called in to deliver last rites and discuss funeral arrangements with White’s family.
Speaking about the accident, White said: ‘We were going back home to my apartment, but first we were stopping at a gas station across the street to get ice cream. But we never made it across the street.
‘I was pulling out of the intersection, and a red car was speeding straight through. I… grabbed my son. We flew about 25 feet in the air, [then] hit the concrete.’
Local reports at the time said police were investigating and looking for suspects. The Daily Mail was unable to secure further updates on the case.
Savanah White, 28, and her son were knocked off their e-scooter in July 2024. The accident left part of her brain hanging out of her head
White is pictured here after the accident. She was clinically dead for over a minute and broke 26 bones in her face
‘I lost consciousness because part of my brain had actually come out of my forehead. I was clinically dead for a minute and 24 seconds.’
She also suffered a broken pelvis, a collapsed lung, two strokes and an aneurysm, which is a bulge in the weak area of a blood vessel.
While harmless on their own, aneurysms can rupture and cause potentially fatal bleeding in the brain.
She was hospitalized for three weeks as a result of her collective injuries.
It is unclear whether White or her son were wearing a helmet while riding the e-scooter.
‘Everything was so bad and I was so mangled up, they didn’t know if I would make it to the surgeries or not,’ White said.
‘After a couple of days, I was stable enough to have surgery – but I didn’t properly wake up for six days.’
Doctors took extra skin from White’s C-section scar and stitched it to her forehead – a procedure known as a skin graft. They implanted metal plates into her face to hold the 26 broken bones together.
Malakye, now eight, was hospitalized with a broken leg and required two head surgeries.
After White regained consciousness, she was in denial about everything that had happened.
‘I woke up on the hospital floor. The security guard stated that I had been trying to escape the hospital. I didn’t think I got hit. I kept ripping my trach [tracheostomy tube] out and trying to leave to get back to my kid.
‘They said, ‘You’re in the hospital. You got hit by a car.’ I said, ‘No, I’m not, no, I didn’t.’ They finally gave me a mirror and I looked at my face and I thought, ‘Oh my god, I did.”
Pictured above is a scan of White’s broken facial bones after the accident
White and her son Malakye (pictured) have both made a full recovery, though White still suffers from PTSD
Over a year later, both mother and son have recovered, and only a small ‘Harry Potter’ scar remains on White’s forehead.
However, the accident left her with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and the damage in her facial bones means she will be ‘unable to smell anything ever again’ as severe injuries can block nasal passages and damage olfactory nerves.
White said she is still ‘terrified of driving’ and struggles to cope with the stress by herself.
However, she also said the ordeal gave her a new perspective and appreciation for life.
‘[While unconscious], I went through a rainbow tunnel, and I saw colors and lights that don’t even exist here.
‘I saw everything: the Earth, heaven, hell, all dimensions. I got to pick where I wanted to go.
‘I chose to come back for my kid. I feel blessed I had that choice.’
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