[Scsocial] Re: Boy makes amazing crash recovery

[Mike Easter]

Chris Wright wrote:
> Talk about lucky...
>
>
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/6217036.stm
>
> A boy whose head was effectively severed from his neck in a racing car
> crash "which should have killed him" has made a miraculous recovery.
>
> Chris Stewart, 12, suffered an internal decapitation, separating his
> skull and neck, when he hit a barrier at a track near Alton, Hampshire
> on 24 September.

Decapitation is a pretty buzzy word for traumatic atlanto-occipital
dislocation AOD.

Maybe the spinal surgeon [or the hospital or someone] wanted some
publicity with some legs.  The head isn't actually attached to the neck
except by soft tissues, and using the term 'decapitation' makes it sound
like he put his disembodied head back on.

I don't think sufficient credit was given to the ambulance dudes who
managed to spend an hour and a half extracting him from that stupid 40
mph racecar he crashed and did so without killing him by moving his
'free swinging' head.

Here's a pic of what the spinal surgeon did
http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2006/12/DecapXray_228x340.jpg

... which definitely doesn't appeal to me, but what're ya' gonna' do
else?

Here's a serious description of the problem with traumatic AOD in
children http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/449884_2  Atlantooccipital
Injury in Children -- Anatomical Features - Management of Dislocation -
Most authors have advocated early posterior occipitocervical fusion -


-- 
Mike Easter
kibitzer, not SC admin