When he woke up after 15 minutes unconscious, Malik Heath started hitting himself to make sure he wasn’t paralyzed.

It was Dec. 2, 2021, and an 18-wheeler had just crashed into the driver’s side door of a car Heath was driving. Heath, then a senior wide receiver at Mississippi State, said he wasn’t wearing a seatbelt.

The Clarion-Ledger reported at the time that Heath’s car was hit when he crossed the northbound lane of a Mississippi highway to head south and that police said there was no reason to suspect at the time that drugs or alcohol played a role in the accident.

Heath remembers regaining consciousness in his car — he said it took a long time for an ambulance to arrive — and wondering what had happened as he looked out the window, no longer in the driver’s seat as the crash had vaulted him across the car.

Once he exited the passenger’s side door, Heath said he started wheezing. He began coughing up blood shortly after arriving at the hospital. He said not only did both of his lungs collapse, but also that he broke his entire rib cage and ruptured his liver.

It was at the hospital in Mississippi that Heath again lost consciousness. He thought he was dying.

“Once I had passed out,” Heath said, “thought I was gone.

“I felt me fading away. I can’t explain it.”

The first hospital didn’t have the necessary equipment to treat him, Heath said, so he was airlifted in a helicopter to a Memphis hospital. Heath remembers regaining consciousness mid-flight.

Barely more than two years later, the 23-year-old undrafted rookie lifts his left arm in front of his locker inside Lambeau Field, revealing a scar below his left armpit. That’s where doctors inserted a tube to help expand his lungs and save his life.

When Heath arrived at Ole Miss with one more year of eligibility after graduating from Mississippi State, coach Lane Kiffin sat him down with a simple message: This was his last chance.

Heath transferred from Mississippi State, where in his first year in 2020, according to reports, he was arrested and charged with driving under the influence, exceeding the speed limit by 20 miles per hour, driving without a license, driving with improper equipment and driving without proof of insurance all at the same time.

Then during a brawl with Tulsa in December 2020, Heath stomped on an opponent’s face mask and boasted about it on Instagram live from the locker room after the game.

He arrived at Ole Miss with baggage and no room for mistakes to prove he belonged in the NFL.

Jonathan Mingo, a 2023 second-round pick of the Carolina Panthers, was a fellow wideout at Ole Miss last season. He and Heath had known each other since high school and shared a personal receivers coach. Before adding Heath, Kiffin asked Mingo what he thought of him. He vouched for his close friend but told Kiffin that they had to straighten Heath out off of the field.

“I been knowing Malik for a long time,” Mingo said in a phone conversation last week. “So I know where he from. He from Jackson (in Mississippi). The schools in Jackson, it’s kinda rough. It’s not that much structure … you be like a little more wild and free.”

“The younger me had a lot of anger from where I was growing up,” Heath said while adding, “I was just a young guy, young, just fresh out of junior college, fresh in D1. You gon’ have mistakes as a young guy.”

Even after he arrived at Ole Miss, Heath said he would get into it with his teammates. Kiffin told him that wasn’t how they conducted themselves at the school, and Heath countered by saying he was a competitor, so he was “going to talk crazy.”

“I’m a Jalen Ramsey-type guy,” Heath said. “But I play receiver.”

Rebels coaches knew they couldn’t corral perhaps their biggest one. If Heath lost his temper, they’d enlist Mingo to calm him down since he knew how to best. Coincidentally, Mingo’s dad and Heath’s dad were roommates for a year at Jackson State and shared a similar dynamic.

“My pops would tell me about Malik’s daddy and they was the same,” Mingo said. “They both liked girls, a hot head, get in trouble, so my daddy had to kind of keep his pops in check, too.”

Heath described himself at Ole Miss as “a little wild child.” He credited Mingo for teaching him that he didn’t always have to be in the spotlight. Heath couldn’t mouth off at Ole Miss, Mingo advised, because NFL scouts would come asking about him.

“I knew State coaches wasn’t gonna really say good stuff about him because I think they ended off on a bad note,” Mingo said, while adding, “I just knew what type of person he was. Malik’s got a good side to him. Malik’s a very playful and childish person, but when he get mad sometimes, he’s hard to calm down.”

Heath gradually matured, becoming more positive and playful as he embraced his role with the Rebels. He led the team with 60 catches and 971 receiving yards and tied Mingo for the team lead with five touchdown catches last season.

Even so, while Mingo went No. 39 to Carolina in the second round, Heath went undrafted.

“I knew his past was gonna kinda hurt him,” Mingo said.

After Heath’s brush with death Dec. 2, 2020, one of his closest friends died less than a month later after being shot 21 times, he said. His grandmother died of COVID-19 the next month.

“It was just like everything hit me at once,” Heath said. “So I just had to shake back.”

Heath didn’t walk at Mississippi State graduation because he wasn’t physically able, so the school sent him his diploma, cap and gown, and his mom conducted a graduation ceremony of sorts at the house with her son on crutches.

Heath reminds himself often of how far he’s come since that near-tragic day just two years ago, as well as the hardship that followed not long after. He’s taught himself never to bring his personal life to work, though. He thinks and vents at home, and said nobody is going to feel sorry for him just because he’s lost people close to him.

He doesn’t dismiss his immaturity in college, either. He had to prove to the Green Bay Packers that they wouldn’t regret giving him a chance after all 32 teams passed on him in April.

Heath’s son, who was born on Christmas in 2019 shortly after Heath left Copiah-Lincoln Community College, turns 4 in two weeks. He wears a cheesehead watching games now, and Heath knows he has to keep his act together because he has somebody who calls him Dad looking up to him.

By all accounts, Heath has done just that since arriving in Green Bay.

“As far as in the building, off the field, he’s been awesome,” coach Matt LaFleur said. “I got no complaints. He comes in every day with a smile on his face, just gets to work.”

It was clear during training camp that Heath should’ve been drafted from a football standpoint alone because of his route-running ability, sticky hands and willingness to throw his nose in a block. He would tell Mingo, in the Panthers receiver’s words, “how he was killing them DBs every day.” He bragged to him about talking smack to Jaire Alexander, the Packers’ two-time All-Pro cornerback and the highest-paid player at the position in NFL history.

Heath, who ran an uninspiring 4.64-second 40-yard dash, told Mingo he would make the teams that passed on him pay.

“He’s a dog and he can go out there and make plays just like anybody else out there,” fellow rookie wide receiver Jayden Reed said. “Malik, I seen it when he first got here, rookie minicamp, the way he moved running his routes. He’s just got that competitive edge to him. He’s always bringing energy, the juice out. Any time you see him making a play, man, he’s bringing the juice, so you can just tell he loves ball and he’s a playmaker.”

The Packers rewarded Heath’s standout training camp with a spot on their initial 53-man roster, where he’s stayed.

Heath was active for the season’s first three games — he didn’t catch any passes on four targets — before being a healthy scratch in the next four. As he’s learned multiple positions within the offense, Heath has started to flash in the last three games, his emergence coinciding with the Packers’ reviving their season by winning three straight games, against the Los Angeles Chargers, Detroit Lions and Kansas City Chiefs.

Heath, at 213 pounds, leveled 269-pound edge rusher Khalil Mack with a chip block to help give quarterback Jordan Love enough time on third-and-20 from the Packers’ 15-yard line to target wideout Dontayvion Wicks, who drew a defensive pass interference penalty that extended the eventual game-winning drive against the Chargers.

“That block in particular was really cool, just for a receiver to be able to block an outside backer like that,” Love said. “We give credit to where it’s due, and it was definitely due on that play. There’s plenty of other cases where I’ve seen Malik fight … digging DBs out, linebackers, different guys. He’s been doing a great job in the blocking game.”

Heath caught all four of his targets against the Lions for 46 yards and made several impressive contested grabs, two of which earned first downs and emphatic celebrations that make you think he’ll throw out his right shoulder signaling them.

Heath dropped a pass against Kansas City that would’ve gained about 15 yards on first-and-10 with the Packers just inside Chiefs territory, looking to extend their 5-point lead in the fourth quarter. Three plays later, though, he caught a pass from Love short of the sticks on second-and-10 and broke cornerback Jaylen Watson’s ankles before stretching the play for 15 yards and thrusting his arm forward again.

“Ironically, that’s something that we talked about in the team meeting room today,” LaFleur said the day after beating the Chiefs. “It was really good to see somebody respond from some negative adversity and make a critical play in that game. I know it’s just a simple 6-yard route, but to take that and make somebody miss and turn it up the sideline … that was a pretty cool moment. He always demonstrates some pretty good emotion after he catches the football.”

Whether it’s because of his blocking or pass-catching exploits, Heath seems to be growing into a favorite inside 1265 Lombardi Ave. lately. With wide receiver Christian Watson set to miss Monday night’s game against the New York Giants with a hamstring injury, more targets might be headed Heath’s way.

Heath gets giddy talking about his recent accomplishments. He marvels at his block on Mack, calling plays like that “unreal” because an undrafted rookie wide receiver is humbling an edge rusher he calls a future Hall of Famer. His octave heightens recalling his ankle-breaker against the Chiefs and he makes sure to emphasize that he made an eye-popping play against not just any team, but against the defending Super Bowl champions.

Perhaps this is still a shock to the 23-year-old whom every team passed on, in large part because of character issues in college.

But how can you blame him?

The scar under his left armpit reminds him that he was this close to never making it home again, let alone making it to the NFL. That’s why every time Heath makes a play, he’s going to savor it as only he can.

“I’ve been through a lot in my life,” Heath said. “So when I get any chance to celebrate or get any chance to show out, that’s what I’mma do.”