{"id":62751,"date":"2025-06-05T02:58:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-05T02:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/?p=62751"},"modified":"2025-06-05T02:58:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T02:58:10","slug":"woman-survi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/?p=62751","title":{"rendered":"Woman survi."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Blurry shot of clinic. Credit \/ Shutterstock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Modern medicine can work wonders, and few stories prove that more than Megan King\u2019s.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At just 16 years old, Megan suffered a devastating injury during a game of football that would change her life forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now 35, the Illinois woman is sharing how a rare condition and a freak accident led to a terrifying case of internal decapitation<\/em> \u2014 and how, against all odds, she survived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While full decapitation is always fatal, internal decapitation \u2014 medically known as atlanto-occipital dislocation<\/em> \u2014 is an extremely dangerous injury where the skull becomes detached from the spine internally. It has a 70 percent fatality rate, according to Real Clear Science<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Megan\u2019s nightmare began when she fell while jumping for the ball, injuring her ankle, spine, and tearing muscles from both shoulder blades. Over the years, she underwent 22 surgeries, but doctors<\/a> struggled to understand why her body wasn\u2019t healing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2015, she was finally diagnosed with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome<\/em> (hEDS), a rare genetic condition that affects collagen production, leading to joint instability. While some people with hEDS are incredibly flexible, for Megan, the condition had the opposite effect \u2014 locking her body into immobility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As her condition worsened, Megan underwent emergency neck surgery and was placed in a halo brace; a rigid frame that involved screwing into her skull to keep her head in place. But when a doctor removed the brace too soon, her skull separated from her spine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI flew my chair back to keep gravity from decapitating me,\u201d she told The Daily Mail<\/a>. \u201cMy neurosurgeon had to hold my skull in place with his hands. I couldn\u2019t stand. My right side was shaking uncontrollably. It was a horror show. I woke up unable to move my head at all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the internal decapitation, Megan endured 15 more surgeries<\/a>. Today, her spine is completely fused, from skull to pelvis, rendering her unable to turn or tilt her head in any direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m literally a human statue,\u201d she said. \u201cMy spine doesn\u2019t move at all. But that doesn\u2019t mean I\u2019ve stopped living.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Incredibly, despite the immense physical limitations and two decades of recovery, Megan has found ways to reclaim parts of her old life. She recently made a triumphant return to a bowling alley \u2014 a place she hadn\u2019t visited since she was a teenager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI bowled a strike on my very first try,\u201d she shared. \u201cMy friends screamed and clapped and cheered like wild. They weren\u2019t just celebrating the strike. They were celebrating everything I\u2019ve survived.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, Megan is focused on adapting to her \u201cnew body,\u201d continually discovering what she\u2019s still capable of. \u201cIt\u2019s not easy,\u201d she admitted. \u201cBut I\u2019m always surprised by what I can still accomplish.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Modern medicine can work wonders, and few stories prove that more than Megan King\u2019s. At just 16 years old, Megan suffered a devastating injury during a game… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62751"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62751"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62754,"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62751\/revisions\/62754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}