29-year old Tony Cowan, suffered a horrific car accident in which his head was ripped from his spine. His survival is considered as a miracle after an Indian-origin doctor performed a rare operation on Cowan to save his life.
Tony Cowan, from Newcastle met with an accident in September 2014. His car hit a speed-bump and spun out of control before colliding with a telephone pole.
The accident caused Cowan's heart to stop and he had to be resuscitated by the paramedics before being rushed to the hospital.
He had received a C2 fracture to his neck and complete spinal cord injury. The medics described the injury as almost “unsurvivable”.
Scans showed that he had no brain activity, which led to his partner, Karen Dawson and mother, Pepsi Cowan, to come to the decision of turning off his life support machine. However, Tony Cowan, opened his eyes and showed that he was determined to live.
Consultant neuro-surgeon, Anant Kamat, who completed his MBBS from the University of Mumbai in 1987, reattached Cowan's skull to his spine with a metal plate and bolts in a rare operation.
His mother said, "The consultants had to make the decision to reattach his skull to his spine with a metal plate and bolts, they had never done an operation like it before and we were informed Tony would probably not survive- but again he pulled through.”
However, Tony Cowan is unlikely to ever work again; though, he has learned to communicate by blinking his eyes, mumbling a few words, as well as using a communication electric board.
