Boy returns home after surviving tornado - KMSP-TV

A 2-year-old boy who survived being thrown from his house in last week's tornado is out of the hospital. Zane McFarland has a cast over much of his body, but his parents say he's happy and they feel blessed to be able to hold him again.

There was a time in the chaos of last week's tornado that Daren McFarland thought he may have lost his son. He and his wife lost everything else in their Sonoraville home, which was blown off its foundation and slammed into Highway 53.

Zane and his great grandmother, Betty Stewart, were huddled next to each other in a hallway when the tornado hit. It blew the walls around them apart, and sent Betty and Zane flying through the air around 100 feet before leaving them in the middle of the road.

"I was in complete shock that they lived through it. I mean, there's nothing there," said Daren McFarland.

Zane suffered several breaks in his left leg.

"You know he wants to get around and play and crawl around on the floor, run around on the floor. But for being 2, he's doing an awesome job," said Daren McFarland.

The McFarlands are staying with family for the time being, but their future -- as is the case with Zane's injury -- is uncertain.

"In long term, his leg will either grow slower than his other leg or grow too much. But that will be further down the road. There are corrective surgeries for all that, so it's not over yet. This will be a life-long thing for him," Daren McFarland said.

His family has a fund set up for Zane, at the North Georgia National Bank in Calhoun.

Zane's great grandmother, Betty, is still in the hospital. She has several broken bones in her legs and back. She just started rehab and is expected to make a full recovery.