- I came inside from doingsome yard work and I got

a phone call from a strange number.

It was Cole's professor.

He said, "Cole's been in an accident."

He said, "He's still breathing,

"but it's bad."

- [Narrator] Charlie andTina Burton will never forget

the morning of May 24th, 2018.

- At that moment, I was just frozen.

I was just paralyzed, if you will.

- [Narrator] That day, as Cole and members

of his geology class searched for rocks

on the side of a highway,

a truck careened out ofcontrol, striking Cole.

- The emotions that we felt, I think,

we're mainly just confusionand worry and hope

that things would be okay and we prayed

before we went and beforewe got on the road.

- [Narrator] Cole was life flighted

to the UAB Medical Center.

When the Butons got there,

they were devastated by the news.

- When the physician,along with the chaplain,

came to speak to us, I knewthat it was a grave situation.

I knew that they were involvedin a fight, if you will,

a fight for Cole's life.

- He was already in a comaat the time that we saw him.

We didn't realize that.

But just, as a mother, to seeyour child just laying there,

you wanna help them.

- [Narrator] Cole had suffereddiffuse axinol injury,

a condition similar toshaken baby syndrome.

- It's basically where the,a very fast start and stop,

and the brain continuesto move inside the skull

and it creates a shearingtype injury, and so,

it's multiple injuriesin multiple locations.

- [Narrator] The Burtonsbegan contacting friends

and family to pray for Cole.

- My prayers, at thatpoint, were not audible,

intelligible prayers.

They were groans, they were grunts.

- Our daughter, Liva, she didcreate this Facebook page,

Pray For Cole, just tokeep people updated,

and we felt the prayersof our church family,

of our family, of our community.

- [Narrator] All Charlieand Tina could do was wait.

- Five days in, they told usthat no meaningful recovery

and that he would probablybe in a vegetative state

the rest of his life.

I started imagining, okay,

so if this is what he's gonna be like,

how, as a mom, am I goingto take care of him?

- Cole had weened himselfoff the respirator.

But he started to storm,brainstorming and that meant

his heart rate was notregulating his blood pressure

and it was almost as ifCole was running a marathon.

And the doctors and the nurses said,

this is not sustainable.

We're gonna have to puthim back on the respirator.

For that three weeks in ICU

of just being on a hour

by hour roller coaster,time kind of stood still.

- [Narrator] The Burtons weresustained during their trial

by prayer and by music.

- When I couldn't pray,I would listen to music.

And one of the mainsongs that I listened to

was the song by Mercy Me, "Even If."

In the song it says, "It's easy to sing

"when there's nothing to get you down."

That song became

important to me because,

even if God chose not to heal him,

that I knew Cole was gonna be okay,

because we knew that Cole was saved

and we knew where he would spend eternity.

- Strangely, we hadthis overwhelming sense

of peace in that moment.

God could have easilytaken Cole at the scene

of that accident, and He didn't.

We felt like if anybody had an opportunity

to make it, it was Cole.

- [Narrator] After about threeweeks, Cole began to respond.

- The nurses came runningout into the waiting room

and they said, "He just said mom!"

And it's like revertingback to when they're babies

and just looking and wantingto hear that first word.

He had a trach and hehad the feeding tube,

so we still didn't know whathis future would look like.

But we knew that he wasresponding to those commands.

Even though they were babysteps, they were happening.

- [Narrator] Once he was stable,Cole was then transferred

to the Shepherd Centerin Atlanta for rehab.

- They said, "Coledoesn't have any sneakers

"and he needs sneakers," and I thought,

well, that's kind of maybea cruel joke because Cole,

he's still not mobile, he's not verbal.

And they said, "No,we're gonna get him up.

"We're gonna get him moving."

And, that was a sense of a hope

and we were like, okay,

we're in the right place.

- [Narrator] Over thecourse of the next year,

Cole continued to improve,exceeding all expectations.

Although he has littlememory of the accident,

Cole remembers his time in rehab well.

- The people at the ShepherdsCenter were so amazing

and incredible in my recovery.

They never showed an attitude of doubt

that I would get better.

- [Narrator] Today, Cole isback at Auburn University

and is functioning at about 90%

of his previous capabilities.

Cole and his family arealso quick to credit

the power of prayer.

- They told my parents that there

wasn't a medical explanationfor what happened.

I've tried to understandthe brain and research

so I would be knowledgableand know what to ask

when I went back to see the doctors.

And they said, "Hey, thisis a miracle of God."

- Where two or more are gathered,

and there were more than two,

God is there and God is listening.

And He heard those prayers.

Our hope and our prayerthrough all of this

and putting this on social media was not

that people would see us, notthat people would see Cole,

but that people would seeGod and the power of God,

and what He can do whenHis people come together

and believe and pray.