One lucky lady

Since it's my blog, I'm invoking my right to go off my usual fairness topics for a post, and introduce you to the most fortunate person I've seen in quite a while.

My professional training is in chiropractic medicine, so I was amazed to see this article, on a 30- year-old woman named Shannon Malloy, who was involved in a severe car accident in January. The impact was so severe that her skull was actually separated from the rest of her spine. The only things holding her head on her shoulders was her spinal cord, her skin and blood vessels, and any muscles and ligaments not torn by the trauma. This condition is known as an internal decapitation, and it is vanishingly rare to survive one. I am aware of only one other case in the literature of someone who lived through this injury, a teenage boy a few years ago.

I watched a video interview with Ms. Malloy, and I was struck by her upbeat attitude and determination to recover fully from her injuries. Good show, ma'am.