8-year-old boy wakes from coma after fall from Minnesota cliff

(KMSP) - An 8-year-old boy is now out of a medically-induced coma after falling 15 feet from a cliff during a family trip to Taylors Falls.

Jacari is on his way to recovery, working on physical, speech an occupational therapy. But for now, it’s unknown what “recovery” will actually mean for him.

“He does have some left side impairment. He is not able to walk fully by himself yet, and that is one of his biggest challenges, as he does not want to go back to school with the wheelchair,” his mother Tatiana Thompson said.

Jacari doesn’t remember much about his fall at Interstate Park in October. He simply remembers hiking. 

The fall ended with jaw, pelvis and back fractures along with a head injury. But after two weeks in a medically induced coma, he woke up.

That was enough to fill his mother with a lot of hope - even if his first words were “I gotta pee.”

“I’m full of emotion and jumping up with joy,” Thompson said.

There is some short-term memory loss, and sometimes he’s at a loss for words, but the focus is on what Jacari can do – not what he can’t.

“There’s a lot of things he can do, but there’s a lot of things he won’t be able to that he did before. So me and dad are trying to prepare ourselves for that conversation,” Thompson said.

A GoFundMe has been set up for Jacari here.