MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) – Relatives of the young miner who survived the Sago coal mine explosion gathered at a hospital Sunday as doctors prepared to revive him from a medically induced coma.

Anna McCloy said that while the family was hoping to see her husband open his eyes soon, their thoughts and prayers were also with the 12 miners who didn’t make it out alive, and the families attending their funerals Sunday.

The lone survivor, 26-year-old Randal McCloy Jr., had been heavily sedated to allow his brain time to heal. He underwent hyperbaric oxygen treatment, which forces pressurized oxygen into the body to fight carbon monoxide poisoning, at Pittsburgh’s Allegheny General Hospital and was transferred back to a West Virginia hospital late Saturday.

Early Sunday, McCloy’s attending physician said the miner had shown some signs of improvement but remained in critical condition.

While McCloy’s heart and liver were functioning well, his kidneys were still recovering, Dr. Larry Roberts said. As a result, McCloy will continue to be given daily dialysis treatments to filter his blood and rid his body of excess fluids, he said.

Doctors said McCloy’s left lung appears to have stabilized after becoming injured from dust and toxic gasses the miner inhaled during his final hours in the mine, likely because his reflexes weakened, leaving him unable to cough or sneeze.

Doctors will be watching for McCloy to “begin to arouse and open his eyes” once the sedatives wear off, said Dr. Julian Bailes, a neurologist at Ruby Memorial Hospital. During earlier treatments, McCloy was seen flickering his eyelids, biting his air tube and squeezing hands when his medication was adjusted.

“We’re hoping for a great recovery, but it’s just too early to know,” Bailes said.

Late Sunday, the hospital said in a statement that McCloy’s sedation had been stopped and he was breathing, but that it was too soon to know if the medication had cleared his system.

Anna McCloy spoke briefly to reporters, telling them the family’s “thoughts this morning continue to be with Randy’s co-workers and their families.”

“We are thinking of them today and throughout this difficult time and we ask you to please keep all the families in your thoughts and prayers,” she said.