Woman falls off horse, picks up her own head

[Iason Ouabache]

http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/woman-picked-up-own-head-after-horse-fall/story-e6frfku0-1225944333785

A HORRIFIC fall from a horse left a woman with such a severely broken neck she was forced to pick up her own head.

Thea Maxfield, who runs a stud farm in Oxfordshire, England, suffered a "hangman's break" a clean break of the upper cervical vertebra when she fell from her dressage horse.

She tried to get out of the animal's way as it galloped around after the fall, but when she tried to pick herself up, the horrified 26-year-old found her head stayed where it was.

Realising she had to move to avoid being stomped on, Ms Maxfield cupped her hands around her own head and lifted it into place to avoid damaging her spinal cord.

"As soon as I came off the horse I knew something was wrong. I went to get up but my head stayed on the floor,'' she told the Daily Express.

"I couldn't move my neck or my head and I had to literally pick my head up and carry it in my hands."

After managing to stagger to safety, Maxfield, watched by her frightened mother Diane, 66, was taken to hospital.

Doctors initially warned she may be permanently paralysed.

But incredibly after using a revolutionary fixed brace connected to a computer by tiny sensors for three months to help fuse the bones back together, she is now back riding seven months after the accident.

[Freeky]

DAMN.

[Cainad (dec.)]

Holy crap.

This give me a squirmy, icky feeling in my spine.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

GAH

[Doktor Howl]

The Optimist says "She's got a golden ass."

The Pessimist says "She's used up all the luck her family will have for the next 6 generations".

[Freeky]

The Pessimist says "She's used up all the luck her family will have for the next 6 generations".

[Jasper]

If that ever happened to me, I'd have a heyday starting with "lose me own head next..."

[Elder Iptuous]

ultimate bar story, that's for sure.

also, BRASS NUTS for getting back on a horse again!  that's a tough woman!

[Cain]

I heard a similar story from WWII.  They had the barrage balloons up, but aircraft fire had shredded the steel cables used to hold them in place, so it was floating loose.  One of these cables struck a woman on the back of the neck very hard.  Her hands went up to her head and she held it in place until she could get to a hospital.  I cant remember the exact specifics of the damage she suffered, but it was life-threatening, if not for her actions.

[Jasper]

That makes three cases where Ive heard of someone having this happening and surviving, and no cases where they didn't.

I guess those ones don't make news.   

[Triple Zero]

It could also be because we actually don't need spines.

It could be a big hoax perpetrated by physiotherapists and the like.

Maybe those shapeless blobs in funny carts at Wal-Mart know something we don't?