A mother has revealed how she cheated death after being “internally decapitated” by a drunk truck driver.
Stephanie Ronan of North Carolina suffered an atlanto-occipital dislocation, when the skull and upper spine detach but the skin on the neck remains intact.
She was leaving a friend’s house around 11 p.m. on September 29, 2018 when a truck suddenly crossed into her lane and hit her at 55 miles per hour, sending her flying into a ditch. The driver was found to be intoxicated.
The fracture in his neck caused the ligaments and muscles that held the skull in position over the upper vertebrae of the spine to tear from the skull, an injury that kills most sufferers.
Mrs Ronan said: “I may look like most women my age, but I must face unnecessary struggles every day that I didn’t ask for.” Due to the speed and the type of impact caused, my body will never be the same.’
Stephanie Ronan of North Carolina suffered an atlanto-occipital dislocation, which occurs when the skull and upper spine detach but the skin remains intact.
A device had to be surgically inserted into his neck to repair the dislocation.
In addition to the spinal tear, he also suffered broken ribs, a broken femur, a broken kneecap, a broken foot, collapsed lungs, liver bruises, and post-traumatic stress disorder, which makes driving and sitting in the passenger seat emotionally unbearable. said. news week.
She said: ‘The trauma surgeons saved my life that night by putting me back together with hardware to my neck, femur, tibia, foot and ribs. The impact also caused one of my eyes to cross, leaving me visually impaired.’
The most serious injury was the separation of his neck from the skull, which is colloquially called internal decapitation.
He added: “I still remember opening my eyes and feeling total panic while I was in the hospital. With limited range of motion in my neck and shoulder, driving again was a challenge. I had to rely on blind spot monitoring in my new vehicle, as well as special mirrors.’
“To this day, I still have chronic pain and stress from the events that occurred that day.”
The ditch his car fell into was about 500 feet away. She had only gotten to within about three miles of her friend’s house.
They had to take her out of her vehicle and transfer her by helicopter to get to the hospital as quickly as possible.
The drunk driver had a suspended license and beer cans in the car, Mrs. Ronan. saying. Approximately three weeks before hitting Ms. Ronan, the man had received a DUI and lost his license.
She spent 19 days in the ICU, where she was put on a ventilator, followed by 11 days in the recovery unit and 23 days on the hospital’s rehabilitation floor.
Ms. Ronan now volunteers with Mothers Against Drunk Driving to hopefully turn her pain into a means to help others.
She now volunteers for Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), which has given her a sense of meaning.
She said: ‘There is great reward in turning my pain into something that can help others.
“Lastly, I’ve learned to be grateful for the good days and to allow myself grace when my body is in severe pain, when I can’t do the things I want or need to do.”
Internal decapitation is seen most frequently. in car accidents.
A severe spinal cord injury disrupts vital nerve signals between the brain and body, which can lead to paralysis, impaired respiratory and cardiac function, and motor abilities.
The researchers behind a 2015 study on atlanto-occipital dislocation said, “When present, neurological injury from AOD can be devastating and often leads to sudden death secondary to brainstem injury.”
‘Previous autopsy reports have documented that AOD is the cause of death in 6%-8% of traffic deaths. However, not all cases of AOD will result in death or serious disability.
The condition is most commonly seen in children and adolescents, because the bones are not yet fully developed and may still contain cartilage.
They are also more likely to have proportionally larger heads and weaker neck muscles than adults.
It has a very high mortality rate, although the actual number of people who die from it is unclear, because accident victims often do not undergo autopsies after their death.
A 2005 study reported that 16 children were treated in a Philadelphia hospital with AOD over a 17-year period, and 12 of them died, marking a 75 percent mortality rate.
The normal distance between the skull and the spine is usually 1 to 2 millimeters.
Christy Bullock, an Alabama native who turned too sharply while riding a motorcycle crashed into a guardrail. While she stopped her body, her head, wrapped in a heavy helmet, continued to move forward.
The separation between your head and your spine. It was 10 to 15 millimeters.