Racer recovers from severed head

[k69atie]

A 12-year-old boy whose head was severed from his neck in a racing car crash has made a miraculous recovery.

Chris Stewart suffered an internal decapitation - which kills or disables most people - during a 40mph smash on a track near Alton, Hampshire, in September.

Firefighters spent an hour and a half cutting him free from the wreckage of his 1000cc Mini after the accident.

The force of the crash had separated his head from his neck internally and detached his tongue at the root.

Surgeons re-attached his head to his spine with metal plates and bone grafts during a six-hour operation. His parents were warned he only had a 7% chance of survival.


However, after 19 days in intensive care and four weeks wearing a neck collar, he was able to swim, walk and exercise, although speaking and eating remain difficult.

He has now been allowed to leave leave Southampton General Hospital for weekend visits, and his delighted parents have hailed his amazing recovery.

Mum Debra, 40, said: "I was watching the race and I just felt physically sick. I could see the impact, how fast he was going.

"At first I wasn't really sure about the extent of his injuries. He had been knocked out but came round and stayed awake while they cut him out of the car.

"He is very lucky to be alive. It's a miracle really."

She said Chris, from Fareham, now wants to get back behind the wheel, adding: "He has no chance. I can't go through that again."

Source: www.skynews.co.uk

 

[Tru Principle]

Ugh... This article isn't doing a very good job explaining the medical details

If your head is chopped off, you will not recover... what the fuck... I think I just woke up in 4104

 

[k69atie]

Gross isn't it?

I felt sick after i read it!

 

[Sebastian]

Ugh... This article isn't doing a very good job explaining the medical details

If your head is chopped off, you will not recover... what the fuck... I think I just woke up in 4104

Lmao, so true.

 

[Tru Principle]

Gross isn't it?

I felt sick after i read it!

Not at all, atleast not to me, I don't find this shit gross but what I Find idiotic is this article.


I'm still not a Doctor, so I'll try to explain this in how I think it would work.

If your brain doesn't get oxygen for three minutes, chances are you'll be brain dead or have severe brain damage.

Now... for the sake of fantasy... let's imagine... this person's head was severed from his torso... so you're telling me... ... a group of neuro, vascular, orthopedic, and trauma surgeons re-attached the head to the body ... in under three minutes !?!?

lol... the only thing I could imagine is this person sustaining severe vascular trauma to the neck area and having the blood vessels re-attached... but.. to have your body decapitated and then survive... sorry, not in this world.

 

[Shahin]

I agree it doesn't really go in detail about what injuries he sustained, but it says internally decapitated, which i assume means he had his throat and esophagus cut off. It doesn't say he had his head removed from his body.

 

[k69atie]

Not at all, atleast not to me, I don't find this shit gross but what I Find idiotic is this article.


I'm still not a Doctor, so I'll try to explain this in how I think it would work.

If your brain doesn't get oxygen for three minutes, chances are you'll be brain dead or have severe brain damage.

Now... for the sake of fantasy... let's imagine... this person's head was severed from his torso... so you're telling me... ... a group of neuro, vascular, orthopedic, and trauma surgeons re-attached the head to the body ... in under three minutes !?!?

lol... the only thing I could imagine is this person sustaining severe vascular trauma to the neck area and having the blood vessels re-attached... but.. to have your body decapitated and then survive... sorry, not in this world.

I didn't write it

 

[Tru Principle]

I didn't write it

hahah, i know my bad.. but I think who ever wrote this had intended to be ambiguous and make it seem like yeah.. the person whole head got chopped off...that devious punk lol

 

[k69atie]

I did wonder how on earth it was (or even if) it was possible.

 

[Illuminattile]

From a similar story

Doctors said Ricky suffered an "internal decapitation," meaning that his skull was severed from the top of his spine.

In addition, the ligaments attaching the skull to the spine were completely torn, leaving only skin and some muscle to hold the skull in place.

Ricky was in a deep coma as surgeons at Phoenix Children's went to work, reattaching his skull to his spine using metal rods, plates and screws.

Ricky eventually awoke from his coma and regained use of his right leg and arm.

From another one:

A near-fatal car accident this past January ended a lifelong career as a musician when the ligaments connecting the base of Greitzer's skull to her backbone were severed, internally decapitating her.

Miraculously, even though Greitzer's injuries were so severe, tests revealed that her organs and spinal cord were still intact.

"None of the other organs were injured; the spinal cord wasn't injured, the major vessels of her neck weren't injured, but all the ligaments that bind the skull to the neck were compromised," said Dr. Zachary Levine, neurosurgeon at the Washington Hospital Center.

With immediate surgery, Levine was able to reattach Greitzer's skull to her cervical spine with a plate and two screws. He also attached two titanium rods to both sides of her backbone.

Greitzer's miracle was twofold. Not only did she survive a very serious car crash, but she also survived a very rare and life-threatening injury.

"It's extremely rare, and it's extremely rare to survive this," said ABC News Medical Editor Dr.Tim Johnson.

And another

Atlanto-occipital dislocation, the medical term for the internal decapitation he suffered, is a rare occurrence that few victims survive. The injury is similar to the one that paralyzed actor Christopher Reeve.

Yet in the span of about a year, neurosurgeon Gianni Vishteh of John C. Lincoln North Mountain Hospital in Phoenix led a team that put Webb and two other internally decapitated Valley residents back together.

Willie Williams and a third man, who has recovered but was not available for an interview, were hurt in traffic accidents.

"It's amazing to have three people with these severe injuries make such a phenomenal recovery," Vishteh says.

Of the people known to have suffered internal decapitation, more than 90 percent die on the scene from respiratory arrest or injuries to the cervical medullary junction, where the brain stem turns into the spinal cord, he says.

"Half of those who make it to the hospital are left with significant disabilities," Vishteh says, "and only a small number survive fairly intact."

Any movement during rescue, treatment and surgery, including the insertion of a breathing tube, can cause paralysis or death.