CEDAR SPRINGS, Mich. – A Michigan woman has stunned doctors by surviving a car crash that internally decapitated her.
Lila DeLine of Cedar Springs was in a serious car crash back in August that caused her spinal cord to break. She was almost home when another car hit her.
Recommended Videos
Dr. Charles Gibson, a trauma and acute care surgeon at Spectrum Health Butterworth Hospital in Grand Rapids, told WOOD TV that it's the same injury you'd see from a guillotine.
"Just her getting here is nothing short of a miracle," Gibson said. "Most people don't even make it from the scene of the crash with this sort of injury."
She is the first patient he has seen survive such a severe injury.
DeLine doesn't remember what happened, but says her family filled her in on the details. Her husband held her head and neck until paramedics came, which likely allowed her to continue breathing and likely saved her life, doctors said.
"I took care of her while she was in the ICU and she couldn't move anything. The best that she could do is blink to commands. She couldn't move. She couldn't talk. She couldn't do anything. She wasn't even breathing on her own," Dr. Gibson explained.
"I thought that was going to be my life. I thought that my life was going to be ventilators and diapers and not being able to communicate," DeLine told WOOD TV.
DeLine will continue to receive physical therapy.