‘Decapitated’ girl saved after horror soccer harm as head screwed again on
The then 16-year-old’s skull was basically “internally decapitated” after a freak football accident but her head was reattached by miracle surgeons across 22 operations
A 16-year-old tore the muscles off her shoulder blades during a horror sports accident, and over a decade later she almost died when she became internally decapitated.
It all started when Megan King, now 35, was playing football and landed very badly after going to catch a ball on September 21, 2005. She said she “turned into a human statue” that left her facing decades of health struggles.
Megan needed a staggering 22 operations, and two decades later, doctors were able to reattach her spine and head in a rare and miraculous surgery. During the match, Megan, from Illinois, injured her right ankle and spine and tore the muscle off both her shoulder blades when she fell over. She subsequently spent over a year on crutches, but her injures worsened over the years.
But doctors were able to figure out what was behind her condition, diagnosing her with hypermobile Ehler’s-Danlos syndrome (hEDS) in 2015.
The genetic disorder impedes the body’s ability to make collagen, a joint tissue.
This can lead to a variety of symptoms including muscle tears, pooling blood, heart issues and joint dislocation.
Megan previously said: “When collagen is faulty it can cause an array of symptoms because collagen is like the foundation to a house. If the foundation is weak the house can fall apart.”
But a year later, Megan’s neck became dislocated and she was fitted with a metal device that screws directly into the skull to keep the neck and head upright, called a Halo brace.
The situation worsened when the process to remove the contraption left her skull becoming nearly fully detached from her spine.
The rare condition, called Atlanto-occipital dislocation (AOD) or internal decapitation, is potentially deadly.
Megan told the MailOnline: “I flew my chair back to keep gravity from decapitating me. My neurosurgeon had to hold my skull in place with his hands. I couldn’t stand. My right side was shaking uncontrollably.”
Doctors managed to fuse her skull back to her spine, but she woke up unable to move her head at all.
She now unable to move her head from side to side as doctors have since fused her bones from her head down to her pelvis.
Spinal fusions are not uncommon, but very few people worldwide have been fused from the skull to the pelvis.
She said: “I’m literally a human statue. My spine doesn’t move at all. But that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped living.”
Megan has managed to go bowling recently, one of her favourite hobbies, btu she is still learning what her new body can do.
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