In a rare and complex operation that is not unprecedented, doctors in Israel last month reattached a 12-year-old boy’s head to his neck after an accident in which he was hit by a car while riding his bicycle.
According to a report published in Times of Israel recently, Suleiman Hassan, a Palestinian from the West Bank, was airlifted to the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem after the accident. The doctors there found that the ligaments holding the posterior base of Hassan’s skull were severely damaged, leaving it detached from the top vertebrae of his spine. The condition is commonly known as internal or orthopaedic decapitation. The injury is very rare in adults, and even more so in children.
Dr Ohad Einav, the orthopaedic specialist who led a large team of doctors andparamedics said the surgery was very complicated and took several hours. “While in the operating room, we used new plates and fixations in the damaged area. ”
Hassan was recently discharged from the hospital with a cervical splint. “The fact that such a child has no neurological deficits or sensory or motor dysfunction, and that he is functioning normally and walking without an aid after such a long process, is no small thing,” Dr Einav said.
According to a report published in Times of Israel recently, Suleiman Hassan, a Palestinian from the West Bank, was airlifted to the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem after the accident. The doctors there found that the ligaments holding the posterior base of Hassan’s skull were severely damaged, leaving it detached from the top vertebrae of his spine. The condition is commonly known as internal or orthopaedic decapitation. The injury is very rare in adults, and even more so in children.
Dr Ohad Einav, the orthopaedic specialist who led a large team of doctors andparamedics said the surgery was very complicated and took several hours. “While in the operating room, we used new plates and fixations in the damaged area. ”
Hassan was recently discharged from the hospital with a cervical splint. “The fact that such a child has no neurological deficits or sensory or motor dysfunction, and that he is functioning normally and walking without an aid after such a long process, is no small thing,” Dr Einav said.