Toddler’s Head Attached after “internal decapitation”......not really!

Toddler’s Head Attached after “internal decapitation”......not really!

Over the past few days I’ve had several people ask me if I heard about the “kid who’s head was attached after internal decapitation”. This story from Australia became a mainstream hit after it was presented on the news. However, what happened really isn’t that unusual, but it has become a media sensation because the hospital cleverly coined the phrase “internal decapitation” .

Here is what happened, a two year old was involved in a car accident. He sustained a cervical spine fracture (broke some bones in his neck). From what I have gathered no nerves were severed such as the spinal cord, and the blood vessels going to the brain were not severed either. This does really equal decapitation, in which case both the spinal cord and blood vessels are severed. So in reality, there is nothing about this case that amounts to “internal decapitation”.

The child had a cervical fracture that was treated with surgery and a halo device which is applied to the head temporarily to stabilize the neck. This is a wonderful success by some very capable surgeons. However, these injuries and surgeries occur on a daily basis, more often in adults.

I would say that this news story is more of a triumph of marketing rather than a medical breakthrough.