“Miracle” student who nearly died while swimming is stunned with gifts from a Secret Santa

The EastIdahoNews.com team is busy helping a local Secret Santa give $1 million to deserving people in eastern Idaho this holiday season. Every day, from now until Christmas, we will post videos of the recipients being surprised with these life-changing gifts.

Jerry is an engineering student from Ghana studying in eastern Idaho. He is in his senior year and hoping to take his degree back to Ghana to bless the lives of those in his country.

Jerry recently received word that his dad died. He was devastated, and his roommates decided to take a hiking trip to hopefully get his mind off the tragic news from back home. Halfway through their hike, they came upon a lake and decided to take a swim.

After some time, Jerry’s roommates noticed he was nowhere to be found. Jerry suffered a seizure while in the water and went under. Fortunately, two emergency room workers happened to be swimming near Jerry at the time and helped to pull him out of the water.

After several attempts. they were able to resuscitate him and Jerry began to breathe again. He was airlifted to EIRMC in Idaho Falls, where doctors believe his brain had been without oxygen for nearly 15 minutes.

Jerry was in a coma for several days before miraculously waking up. Since then, he has been in and out of EIRMC and other medical facilities, including the University of Utah Hospital. The doctors say it is a miracle that Jerry is alive and able to come out of this without significant damage to his brain and other vital organs.

Since the accident, Jerry has been steadily recovering and has nearly regained full mobility and speech. He has been staying with a religious leader, and after months of medical appointments, he is planning to return to school in January for his final year.

Secret Santa asked the East Idaho News elves to pay Jerry a visit with an early Christmas gift. Watch the video above to see the surprise!