Toddler walking again after surgeon reattaches head to spine - East Idaho News
World

Toddler walking again after surgeon reattaches head to spine

  Published at  | Updated at

MELBOURNE — An Australian toddler is walking again after surgeons reattached his head to his spine following a horrific car crash.

Sixteen-month-old Jaxon Taylor suffered an internal decapitation last month when the car in which he was riding with his mother and 9-year-old sister crashed head-on into another vehicle, NBC4 New York reports. The cars were going around 70 mph at the time of the crash.

Rylea Taylor, Jaxon’s mother, was driving. The airbags deployed, saving her from injury, and she was able to jump from the car to get to her children, according to 7 News Melbourne. But when she went to pull her son from the car, she knew something was horribly wrong.

“I knew that his neck was broken,” Rylea Taylor said.

The force of the collision had caused his head to separate from his neck and spine. Jaxon was flown to a hospital and immediately placed under the care of the man known as Australia’s “Godfather” of spinal surgery — Dr. Geoff Askin.

“A lot of children wouldn’t survive that injury in the first place,” said Askin. “If they did, and they were resuscitated, they may never move or breathe again (on their own).”

Jaxon’s parents say their son’s survival and recovery is nothing short of a miracle.

“They’ve taken two broken kids and put them all back together,” said Jaxon’s father, Andrew Taylor. “I’m very, very thankful.”

Jaxon’s halo will keep everything in place for the next eight weeks and he should fully recover.

SUBMIT A CORRECTION