Doctors have successfully reattached an Illinois woman’s skull to her spine after a freak accident left her with a nearly fatal internal decapitation, according to a report.
Megan King, now 35, was 16 when she fell while leaping for a ball during a soccer game in gym class, injuring her right ankle, spine and tearing the muscle off both of her shoulder blades, the Daily Mail reported.
After 22 surgeries, King’s condition continued to get progressively worse, causing doctors to diagnose her with hypermobile Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (hEDS), a genetic connective tissue disorder that disrupts the body’s production of collagen, leading to joint instability, the outlet reported.
A year after diagnosis, King’s neck became dislocated, forcing her to wear a restrictive “halo brace” with screws placed directly into her skull to keep her from moving.
During the removal of the brace, her skull detatched from her spine, causing King to suffer a nearly deadly “internal decapitation,” known as an Atlanto-occipital dislocation (AOD), the outlet said.
“I flew my chair back to keep gravity from decapitating me. My neurosurgeon had to hold my skull in place with his hands. I couldn’t stand. My right side was shaking uncontrollably,” King told the outlet.
King was then rushed to emergency surgery, where doctors fused her skull to her spine.
“It was a horror show. I woke up unable to move my head at all,” King said.
King managed to survive the harrowing decapitation, which carries a 90% fatality rate due to the likelihood nerve signals will become damaged between the brain and body, leading to paralysis around vital organs like the lungs and heart.
She has had a total of 37 surgeries since her accident, leaving her body fused from her skull to her pelvis and her head unable to move in any direction, according to the outlet.
“I’m literally a human statue. My spine doesn’t move at all. But that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped living,” she said.
Internal decapitations are three times more common in children in traumatic accidents because their bones are not fully developed, according to a 2015 review study. But in King’s case, her fall in combination with hEDS were enough to lead to the injury, she told the outlet.
Still, internal decapitations are extremely rare, accounting for less than 1% of all cervical injuries.
King is now returning to normal hobbies she had before her life-altering injury, including a recent bowling outing.
“I bowled a strike — on my very first try. My friends screamed and clapped and cheered like wild. They weren’t just celebrating the strike. They were celebrating everything I’ve survived,” she said.
“‘I’m still learning what my new body can do. It’s not easy, but I’m adapting. And I’m always surprised by what I can still accomplish.”
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