.gif)
A Utah man had a 90 to 95 percent chance of dying after shattering his skull in more than 10 places until a neurosurgeon removed both sides of his head and froze it.
Kyle Johnson’s brain swelled uncontrollably after an accident on a longboard - essentially a surfboard on wheels - two months ago, FOXNews.com reported today.
Dr Blake Welling, of McKay-Dee Hospital in Ogden, Utah, outside Salt Lake City, decided to perform the risky surgery.
“It’s something that neurosurgeons do as a last ditch effort,” he said.
Dr Welling and his team removed the 25-year-old's fractured skull, put it back together with micro-screws and plates, and then, they put it in the freezer.
Mr Johnson was placed in a drug-induced coma for about three weeks while doctors monitored his brain swelling.
After the swelling went down, Dr Welling put the bone flaps back into place, and it took Mr Johnson about another week to wake up after that.
“I wasn’t quite sure what we were going to be left with,” Dr Welling said. “When people have injuries like this I thought he may have a significant disability in terms of having to talk and walk again and learning his cognitive function. But low and behold, Kyle woke up and his lights gradually went back on.”
Although Mr Johnson did not require any real physical therapy, he is currently undergoing cognitive therapy to help with memory loss and things like multi-tasking.
“It’s something that I do not have the ability to do right now,” he said. “If you put two colour crayons in front of me, say blue and green, I really cannot think of both crayons. I can only think of one at a time and even that is a struggle. So, for therapy, we’ve been doing more mind exercises if you will.”
Now, almost 10 weeks after the accident, Kyle is looking forward to the future, but he is not sure if he will ever get back on his longboard.
"It's kind of an eerie type of feeling - so I don't know if I will ever get back to longboarding - but snowboarding for sure."
