A man has stunned doctors by surviving an “internal decapitation” when his car slid on ice in a serious car crash.
Brock Meister, 22, was seriously hurt in January when his car flipped and his head smashed into a window.
The force of the crash caused all the ligaments attaching Meister’s skull to his spinal cord to snap, leaving him “internally decapitated.” Crucially, however, his neck didn’t break.
The injury is “almost always fatal” as the head can move around, causing damage to the lower brain stem that helps control breathing.
It can also leave patients severely disabled if too much damage is caused to the spinal cord.
But Meister, from Indiana, survived the ordeal thanks to quick-thinking friends who held him down after the accident to keep him still, according to a blog post by Beacon Health System, the parent company of the hospital where he was treated.
When paramedics arrived they were able to stabilize him before taking him to Memorial Hospital of South Bend in Indiana.
The only thing Meisterremembers from the accident is that “half my body was out the window.”
He was only the second patient to be taken to the hospital with such severe injuries.
Once Meister was stabilized, scans revealed a traumatic atlanto-occipital dislocation, “essentially a complete separation of the skull from the spine or internal decapitation.”
But Meister soon developed a large clot in his neck that was compressing his airway and leaving him struggling to breathe.
Doctors were forced to perform a tracheostomy — making an incision in his neck to insert a breathing tube — as putting the tube down his throat risked causing too much damage to his already precarious neck.
Dr. Kashif Shaikh, Meister’s neurosurgeon, performed surgery to place a skull plate, rods and spinal screws in his neck to stabilize the injury.
After a month in the hospital, Meister was allowed home wearing a neck brace.
Now six months since the accident, Meister is still undergoing intensive rehabilitation and has difficulty moving his right arm. He also has pain in his legs.
“It will take some time for the body to heal and that can be a frustrating and painful process,” Shaikh said.
“But he is very young, has a great attitude, and he looks better and better each time I see him so I continue to be very optimistic.”
“I don’t think professional race car driving or football is in his future, but I certainly think a year from now he will back hanging out with his friends eating chicken wings again.”
“It’s likely if you see Brock he will have a smile on his face,” his mom Jenna Meister added.
“But most days for Brock are filled with physical pain and are just plain tough.”
“My heart aches for him. He wants to be better and I want him to be better.”
“As a mom, I know, I truly know God was there that night and saved my child.”
“Things easily could have been more tragic and my time spent with him could be at the cemetery. Our boy is a miracle.”
It’s not the first time Brock has faced complicated medical procedures.
When he was 16 he was diagnosed with a grade III germinoma brain tumor after suffering blurry vision and severe headaches.
The tumor was located in the center of his brain, making surgery to remove it impossible.
He underwent four rounds of chemotherapy in 12 weeks and his tumor eventually began to shrink and die.