Kit Roberts
A woman has opened up about how she miraculously survived being 'internally decapitated' after being involved in a car crash.
Stephanie Ronan, from North Carolina, had been leaving a friend's house in September 2018 when a truck crossed into her lane and hit her car at 55 miles per hour, sending it careening into a ditch nearby.
She suffered an 'internal decapitation', or in medical terms an atlanto-occipital decapitation, among several other very serious injuries.
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For those who don't know, an atlanto-occipital decapitation is where the skull and top of the spine become separated but the skin around the neck remains intact.
A patient is effectively 'decapitated' from the perspective of bodily function but does not appear to be so externally. Even people who survive often require lifelong support due to the injury causing paralysis.
The injury is most commonly associated with motor vehicle crashes.
According to Stephanie, the driver of the truck was subsequently found to have been under the influence of alcohol.
Stephanie has since opened up about her recovery and spoken about the dangers of drink-driving.
In an article about her experience for Newsweek, she wrote: "I may appear like most women my age, but I must face daily unnecessary struggles that I did not ask for. Due to the rate of speed and the type of impact caused, my body will never be the same."
Stephanie continued: "I still remember opening my eyes and feeling utter panic while in the hospital."
"The trauma surgeons saved my life that night by putting me back together with hardware in my neck, femur, tibia, foot, and ribs," she added. "The impact also caused one of my eyes to cross, which left me with a visual impairment."
Surgeons were able to use implants to reattach Stephanie's skull to the top of her spine.
She then had to undergo extensive physiotherapy and re-learn how to walk but, amazingly, can now drive again.
"With limited range of motion in my neck and shoulder, driving again was a challenge," Stephanie said. "I've had to depend on blind spot monitoring in my new vehicle as well as special mirrors."
Though she has since developed PTSD which 'makes driving and being a passenger extremely hard'.
She added: "To this day, I still having chronic pain and stress from the events that occurred that day."
Stephanie now volunteers with the non-profit organization Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
She said: "Driving while drunk is 100 percent preventable, with so much advancement in technology, people have options to get home safely and should be using them."