Manitoba family holds onto hope for son, 17, in coma after serious crash on Perimeter Highway

WARNING: This story contains disturbing details and images.

It's a very different start to the school year than the Rayner family was hoping for. Instead of watching their 17-year-old son start his first day of university, the family is sitting by the teen's hospital bed, waiting for him to come out of a coma.

"I just want my boy to open his eyes and just [say] an 'I love you mom,' That's all I want," Carrie Rayner said. 

On Aug. 27 in the early afternoon, Devon Rayner was involved in a serious collision that left him in a medically induced coma. 

RCMP said Devon was driving southbound on the Perimeter Highway when he made a left-hand turn at the Highway 15 junction, and he was struck by a northbound semi. 

"We heard the first set of sirens [from our house]… and about 15 minutes after that the RCMP came flying in, honking their horn to get us outside. It was horrible," Carrie said. 

Carrie said all police could tell them at the time was the driver had non-life threatening injuries. 

She and her husband rushed from their home just outside the city to the Health Sciences Centre where she said Devon was already intubated in a resuscitation room. 

"We get to the hospital and the whole side of his head … it was just a bloody mess. It was gross. It was horrible," she said. He was "ventilated and he couldn't open his eyes."

Devon has a brain bleed and damage, and has been having seizures. His mom said he also has 15-20 staples in the side of his head, stitches on his chin, a collapsed lung and he's lost some teeth. 

"He's full of IV's. There's just IV's and tubes everywhere," she said.

Carrie said it was a shocking state to see her son in. She had seen him just hours before the crash, when he was leaving the house for work and the two were joking about his lunch. 

"He had two hot dogs in [two] Ziploc's each and I said 'only four hot dogs?' and he goes 'yeah I ran out of buns,'" she recalled. "And I swear that's not going to be the last thing he says to me. I refuse to have that as the last thing."

Devon recently graduated high school and was going to be starting his undergraduate degree at University of Manitoba this week, pursuing his passion in computer science.