Fish oil has been gaining popularity over the years as a medicinal substitute and a California family decided to rely on its healing powers as a last resort to revive 17-year-old Grant Virgin from his five-month coma following a car accident.

The risk paid off and the California teen made a miraculous recovery due to the fish oil administered faithfully over several weeks.

Grant Virgin, who lives in Palm Desert, Calif., was left with several broken bones and injured internal organs after a near-tragic car accident in September 2013 when an unnamed woman crash into him and drove off. Her identity remains unknown as she ran away without even helping Virgin, even after stopping to survey the damage, a local news outlet reported.

Virgin had been left in a coma and was in bad shape in the months following the accident.

The 17-year-old retained fractures in his skull, clavicle, both femurs and heel, according to a news report. The California teen's aorta was crushed and his liver and spleen were lacerated badly.

"They told us to let him go," JJ Virgin, Grant's mother said in an interview. "It's like, how dare you not fight for my son's life? ... It really took us ... getting very aggressive and assertive to save our son's life, because they weren't going to do it."

The family transferred their son to the Children's Hospital Los Angeles and tried every possible way to help Grant Virgin wake up. The only thing that worked apparently was high doses of omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil, according to CNN.

"If you have a brick wall and it gets damaged, wouldn't you want to use bricks to repair it?" Brain Health Education and Research Institute founder, Dr. Michael Lewis, said in an interview. "By supplementing using (omega-3 fatty acids) in substantial doses, you provide the foundation for the brain to repair itself."

The research on fish oil's effects are limited but physicians believe fish oil can stop the inflammation in the brain and repair damage to it.

Grant Virgin woke up from the coma after being fed high doses of fish oil and had begun speaking again, albeit with only short phrases. Doctors advised his parents to wait, but the Virgin family continued moving forward with their son's treatment.

Just a few months after the accident and a few weeks after he started taking fish oil, the 17-year-old went back home and is reportedly doing well.