Before Boy Died of Brain Aneurysm, Best Friend Held Him in Her Arms (Exclusive)

Their 12-year-old boy died of a brain aneurysm shortly after collapsing while trick-or-treating on Halloween. As his parents mourn their funny, music-loving child who dreamed of helping others, they feel grateful for his best friend, who held him in her arms while waiting for help to arrive.

“We’re so happy to know that his last moments of consciousness were with his closest friends,” Megan Skalina says of her son, who experienced the medical crisis at a friend’s house in Phoenix, Ariz.

That night, the seventh grader — who was just days away from becoming a teenager — was surrounded by a group of people he loved the most, including his best friend Ella.

“She didn’t leave his side at the hospital,” says Megan, 41, of Dylan’s best friend, “and neither did his sisters.” (Dylan has three: Kaylie, 18, Nova, 17, and Lexi, 16.)

On Oct. 31, Dylan spent the day with Ella before they went out trick-or-treating.

After meeting up with some other kids, Dylan began feeling sick and stropped at a friend’s house, thinking he just needed a break because of his Type 1 diabetes.

However, while they were there, Dylan grabbed his head in pain and began throwing up. Ella helped him onto the floor, but he continued to get sick every time he sat up.

Realizing the seriousness of the situation, Ella called Dylan’s mom on FaceTime. “He doesn’t look right. I’m going to call 911,” Megan remembers her son’s friend informing her.

As Dylan’s parents rushed to the house, Ella held Dylan in her arms even after the paramedics arrived. 

“Without Ella, I feel like we wouldn’t have really had those last moments with him,” says Megan. “She was quick on her feet and realized he needed help.”

At the hospital, Dylan’s CT scan wasn’t even finished before the anxious mom saw an ER doctor run by. Megan, who works in the medical field, overheard the doctor ordering surgery and realized her son’s condition was worse than they originally believed. 

“Eventually, they came and let me know that he had a massive brain bleed,” Megan recalls.

Dylan, who experienced two brain bleeds in total, was transferred to Phoenix Children’s Hospital, where he was pronounced brain dead three days later.

His grieving family was told that another of Dylan’s known medical conditions, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS), may have caused the fatal aneurysm. The genetic disorder impacts connective tissue, causing overly flexible joints and fragile and stretchy skin, according to the Mayo Clinic. 

“Because his vasculature was so weak, he probably had a tear or a leak in one of the layers,” his mom says. “And then that bled into the other layers causing the bulge, which is the aneurysm, and then it burst.”

The Skalinas were devastated to learn that Dylan couldn’t be saved, but they found a shimmer of relief when they learned he could donate his organs, something he’d previously discussed with friends.

“These kids, some of the conversations they have amaze me,” says Megan. “He just knew that he would always want to help people no matter what.”

In order to become a donor, Dylan had to be placed in a medically induced coma for a couple of days. During that time, his friends and family held a candlelight vigil for him.

Many loved ones came to say goodbye, including Dylan’s classmates and friends — and after Megan told Dylan’s friend Matty that “he can hear you,” the young boy told her son the story of how they first met.

The gathering deeply moved Dylan’s family and honored his last act of generosity. In total, through direct organ and tissue donation, as well as through research because of his donations, Dylan will be able to help more than 300 people.

His parents say he’d be most excited for his pancreas to be donated to diabetes research. “That is probably making him smile pretty big,” says Megan. 

In a statement shared with PEOPLE, Dylan’s doctor, Matt Carter, MD, says he’s “humbled” whenever a grieving family makes such a decision.

“When Dylan suffered a cerebellar artery aneurysmal rupture, his family faced a reality no loved one should ever endure, yet they honored his wish to help others through organ donation,” says Carter, a pediatric critical care physician at Phoenix Children’s.

“Knowing this is what Dylan wanted, the family reached beyond their pain to offer a gift that will save and enhance the lives of many individuals they may never know,” he continues. “This is a profound act of kindness and compassion in an unimaginably difficult moment.”

As the family planned Dylan’s memorial service, held on Nov. 23, they remembered their “selfless” son who hoped to one day become a trauma nurse, something they learned from his best friend after his death.

“He was probably the most helpful person I knew, either a child or an adult,” says dad Ari, who wasn’t surprised by his son’s final dream career.

Dylan’s drum teacher also planned to have a marching band perform at the reception following the Sunday service.

Although the support for their son has been touching, these decisions have been difficult for his parents. “We weren’t planning on making funeral plans for our 12-year-old,” says Ari, who sported a T-shirt featuring his son’s favorite band while speaking with PEOPLE.

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Now that they have to make these choices for their boy, they’ve decided to have Dylan cremated, which was something mentioned it to his mom while they were watching a documentary a couple of weeks before his death. 

“I would want to be cremated,” Megan remembers her youngest child saying, “So that I would never have to leave you.”