A young boy who was left in a coma for two months after a car crash, and who subsequently wrote a best-selling book about dying and going to heaven, has admitted he made the whole thing up.
Alex Malarkey, who in 2004 was left paralysed at the age of 6, told his family and doctors that during his coma he was lifted to Heaven by an angel where he met Jesus and Satan.
For some reason, the adults believed him.
Malarkey, now 16, went on to write a the book "The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven", published in 2010 and co-authored by his father, Kevin Malarkey, who just happens to be a Christian therapist.
However, Malarkey, from Huntsville, Ohio, recently revealed he made the whole thing up to get attention and has even called for publishers to stop making money out of the deceit.
In an open letter, he wrote: “I did not die. I did not go to heaven. I said I went to heaven because I thought it would get me attention. When I made the claims that I did, I had never read the Bible. People have profited from lies, and continue to.”
Christian publishers are now saying they’ll stop publishing the text.
Alex’s mother states the family has “not received monies from the book nor have a majority of his needs been funded by it”.