A four-year-old boy who was “clinically decapitated” in a head-on collision is alive after a quick-thinking husband and wife worked together to stabilize the child’s neck -- a move that’s been credited with saving his life.
Killian Gonzalez had his skull internally separated from his spine after his mother’s car crashed into another vehicle during a hail storm in Idaho on May 22.
The vehicle was totalled in the dramatic accident, leaving Killian pinned to his booster seat while his mother, Brandy Gonzalez, was trapped in the front.
That’s when off-duty police officer Joel Woodward and his wife, Leah Woodward, who were returning from a camping trip, came across the wreckage.
“Our first instinct was basically just to get out and ascertain any injuries and see what we could do to help,” Joel Woodward told CTV News Channel on Wednesday.
He first checked on the male driver of the other vehicle and found him to be conscious and breathing. When he reached Gonzalez’s vehicle, he noticed the little boy in the back seat.
“He was in a very awkward position. He was over on the left side of his body. I could see that his neck was apparently injured so I knew I needed to get in the vehicle to somehow help him out,” he said.
Woodward then smashed a window to open the back door. Leah stepped inside the car and held Killian’s head upright to help him breathe and keep him talking.
“I did not know that he had an injury. Joel had a feeling there was a neck injury. But my only reaction was to comfort the child for the mom. Everything else was secondary to me,” she said.
According to a local TV station, doctors later discovered Killian had suffered a rare and often fatal clinical decapitation, and had also ruptured his spleen and broken his arms and legs. A doctor who specializes in spinal surgery told the New York Times that stabilizing the boy’s head likely saved his life.
Killian was rushed to hospital for treatment and has since begun the path to recovery. The Woodwards have since been dubbed “Good Samaritans” for helping the little boy and his mother.
“We’re just glad to have been those people that day and help out in any way we can,” Joel Woodward said.
Leah Woodward said she has spoken to Killian’s mother every day since the accident, and that he was discharged from hospital last Saturday.
“He is walking already by himself. He’s just in really good spirits. He doesn’t talk about the accident, from what I understand. But he’s walking. It’s just amazing. It’s a miracle,” she said.
