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Decapitated woman 'doing well' after car crash

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A woman is recovering after being decapitated in a car crash.   Thirty-year-old Shannon Malloy's head became separated from her spine when she was thrown into a car dashboard in the crash.   But although Miss Malloy suffered traumatic and severe injuries, the nerves, muscles and ligaments in her neck miraculously survived. Doctors call the injury an "internal decapitation".

Surgeons said Miss Malloy's injuries were different from a broken neck, which usually occurs when vertebrae in the neck are cracked or broken. In her case, her skull had been knocked completely off the top of the spinal column.

The spinal cord carrying all the vital nerves between the brain and the rest of the body is often severed in severe neck injuries, causing paralysis and often leaving victims as quadriplegics who are unable to move at all, like the former Superman, the late Christopher Reeve. Miraculously Miss Malloy's spinal cord was not damaged. She can walk and has the full use of her arms and hands.   Surgeons at the Denver Spine Centre in Colorado reattached Miss Malloy's skull to the top of her spinal column with five screws through her neckbones. Then they held her head steady by screwing a steel "halo" around the top of her skull which was attached to her shoulders by rods.   Yesterday, nearly four months after the crash, the surgeons removed the halo and a neckbrace that had also helped to hold Miss Malloy's head steady.

As well as the neck injury, she suffered a fractured skull, bleeding in her brain, and damage to her eye nerves which has made her cross-eyed. Her throat and air passage were also severely damaged so she has to be fed by a tube into her stomach and can only speak in short bursts between huge gasps for breath.

Miss Malloy said: "I remember the impact and then I had no control over my head. I wasn't focused so much on the pain. I just kept thinking, I have to stay alive."   During the surgery to reattach her head, she said, "My skull slipped off my neck about five times. Every time they tried to screw this halo to my head, my skull would slip backwards or sideways.   Miss Malloy was amazed at how quickly the halo was removed yesterday. She told her local television news channel: "It only took about eight minutes to take the whole thing off."   As she looked at herself in a mirror, Miss Malloy said: "Oh my God, it's a miracle."   Her mother, Robin Frazee, who watched the procedure, said: "Wow! There's my girl again."   Mrs Frazee added: "I was terrified that Shannon would not survive. For the first few days the doctors told us it was touch and go and we should prepare ourselves for the worst.

"It was really scary because one doctor just kept saying, 'We've never seen this injury before in a person that's alive and you need to say your goodbyes.'"   Spinal injuries specialist Dr Gary Ghiselli said: "It really is a miracle. I've seen this type of injury once before. Unfortunately, the patient didn't make it.

"It's a miracle that Shannon survived the actual accident. It's a miracle that she's made the progress she has."   Now the surgeons will concentrate on trying to repair the damage to Miss Malloy's eyes and throat so she can breathe and eat normally.

She said: "I know a full recovery is a remote possibility. But I could come real close."

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