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Dec 18, 2008 10:00 pm US/Central
Hillsboro Boy Recovers After Near Decapitation
FORT WORTH (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
A 9-year-old Hillsboro boy will walk out of the hospital Friday, and the feat is being called a medical miracle.
Jordan Taylor was in a car accident that separated his skull from his vertebrae. Doctors call the injury an "orthopedic decapitation" and at the time gave Jordan a one percent chance for survival.
"It's a miracle. It's a miracle from God," said Jordan's mother, Stacey Perez. "And it's a miracle of this hospital."
At Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth, Jordan shouldn't be playing air hockey. He shouldn't be moving. He shouldn't even be alive -- not after the type of injury he received.
Three months ago Jordan was in a car wreck that nearly took his head off. "There was no connection between the bones of the neck and the head," explained Cook Children's Dr. Richard Roberts.
Jordan's mother recalled her first sight of her son. "I do remember seeing him in the car and his head was just hanging down."
Jordan says he remembers seeing the dump truck that blew through a stop sign and hit the car. "I remember hitting it. Remember me sitting there with my head tilted sideways not moving," he said.
After seeing her son, Stacey Perez says she just 'started screaming' and wanted her son to 'wake up.'
The initial medical diagnosis gave Jordan a one to two percent chance of survival. "The energy basically made his head lift up off of his neck and then move forward," Roberts said of the injury. "All of the connective tissue that essentially keeps your head connected to your neck was destroyed."
The tissue may have been destroyed, but the faith of Jordan's family was intact. Word about what happened to Jordan spread to the family's church and others churches across the country. Jordan's mother says at one time she knew of at least 20 churches that were praying for her son.
Dr. Roberts reconnected Jordan's head to his neck with a metal plate, screws and titanium rods. Jordan's mother called the doctor a 'miracle worker' and a 'Godsend'.
Now Dr. Roberts couldn't be more excited about Jordan's recovery. "He's beyond all expectations. He's a rock star. He's doing great."
Jordan, who says he misses his friends, will go back to school after the Christmas break.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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