Doctors 'Reattach' Toddler's Head After Head-On Car Crash Caused By 'Reckless' Drivers

Toddler Has Head 'Reattached' After Car Crash
7 News | Toddler spinal surgery

A toddler has undergone delicate surgery to reattach his head to his neck following a serious car accident.Specialist staff pulled off what was thought to be impossible. The boy will now be able to lead a completely normal life after his marathon surgery.7 News reporter Katrina Blowers has the details.Latest from 7 News: http://yhoo.it/1HYefMw7 News video: http://yhoo.it/1V97pbWLatest news on Twitter: twitter.com/7NewsMelbourne

Posted by 7 News Melbourne on Tuesday, 29 September 2015

A toddler's head had to be internally "reattached" by doctors after he was injured in a head-on car crash.

Jackson Taylor's mother has now launched a petition calling for harsher punishment for reckless drivers in Australia.

Jackson, 16 months, was in the car with his mother and nine-year-old sister when they crashed head on with another vehicle travelling at 70mph.

The toddler broke two vertebrae in his neck and his collar bone resulting in an internal dislocation.

Jackson Taylor after surgery

Doctors "reattached" the boy's vertebrae using wire and a piece of his rib in a six-hour operation. He was kept sleeping for three days.

Explaining the car accident, mum Rylea Taylor wrote: "Three boys decided to do doughnuts [a circular manoeuvre] and burnouts [keeping a vehicle stationary and spinning its wheels] aside a bend on a highway at 11am.

"Their stupidity cost my family more than you could imagine. As my car came around the bend at around 100 kms (60mph) dust covered the road - they had released their break and drove straight out onto the highway.

"For a split second I saw dust and then the force hit. The collision was so hard that all airbags were deployed.

"My nine-year-old daughter was unconscious, my 16-month-old son was screaming - both were bleeding from their tiny faces."

Taylor's daughter also had fractured vertebrae and needed three and a half hours of surgery to fix the internal damage she suffered as a result of the crash.

Jackson is currently in rehabilitation

After the crash, Jackson was airlifted to Brisbane, where he was operated on immediately.

Dr Geoff Askin told 7 News Melbourne: "A lot of children wouldn’t survive that injury in the first place, and if they did and they were resuscitated then they may never move or breathe again."

Taylor said, according to the Express: "It's a miracle. The second I pulled him out I knew that his neck was broken."

Jackson is currently wearing a brace to keep his body stable.

His mum has since set up a Change.org petition calling for harsher punishments for reckless drivers in Australia.

In one week, the petition gained 8,700 supporters, which isn't far off Taylor's 10,000 target.

She explained when she contacted the police about the crash, they said it was likely the boys would simply receive a suspended driving sentence and a fine.

Taylor added: "My children will have rehabilitation, physio appointments, scars and a life different to the one I hoped for them.

"It's unfortunate that no matter how safe you are there is nothing you can do to control others, but if someone has destroyed another person's life they don't deserve a slap on the wrist and a right to a second chance - stand up, take their licence off them and punish them accordingly."

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