For nearly two weeks, 8-year-old Samuel Gross lay in a hospital bed, locked in a coma as his family waited and prayed for a miracle.

After 13 days of waiting, those prayers were finally answered when Samuel opened his eyes and said "ouch."

The boy nearly drowned on April 9, when he fell and was sucked into a culvert by gushing water near his home in flood-soaked southern Manitoba.

In total, Samuel spent 20 minutes underwater until his cousin managed to pull his small, limp body to safety.

The boy's father, Robert Gross, told CTV Winnipeg on Thursday that the family was "overjoyed that our prayers have been answered."

Despite spending nearly two weeks unconscious, Gross said his young son appeared to be cognizant shortly after opening his eyes on Wednesday.

"He knew my phone number, he knew how old he was, when his birthday was -- things you would say are complicated to remember if you come out of something like that," said Gross, speaking to reporters at Winnipeg Children's Hospital.

Samuel fell into the fast-moving creek while playing with friends at Westroc Hutterite Colony, which is about 130 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg.

On Thursday, cousin Julie Gross recalled the moments before she pulled Samuel's limp, icy body to safety.

"It was like this high, I think, the water," she said, raising her hand high above the creek which has since receded back to its normal size.

"That's when he fell through ... he went in and the suction pulled him down and he got sucked through the culvert."

Not long after he was pulled from the water, Samuel was airlifted to Winnipeg's Children's Hospital with no pulse. Doctors performed CPR on him for about two hours.

However, while the icy water nearly drowned Samuel, its temperature may have actually saved his life, according to Dr. Murray Kesselman, pediatric ICU medical director at the Children's Hospital.

"He had become very cold while he was in the water before he submerged," he said.

"And the extreme cold allowed his brain to cool, and this is what protected him and allowed him to recover in the end."

Sheryl Livingston, Samuel's schoolteacher, said her class is overjoyed by the news that he'll be coming back to school soon.

"We're amazed," said Livingston, surrounded by her students. "I'm absolutely amazed at how well he's done."

With a report from CTV Winnipeg's Stacey Ashley