> Suleiman Hassan, a 12-year-old Palestinian from the West Bank, suffered what is known as an internal decapitation, with his skull detached from the top vertebrae of his spine — officially known as a bilateral atlanto occipital joint dislocation, according to The Times of Israel.
My guess is, the nerves and blood vessels were still connected but nothing was holding them in place.
It is a bit misleading. He suffered internal decapitation. That means the skull is separated from the spinal column but the tissue around the spinal column is intact. So technically his head wasn't ever detached from his body. But his skull was detached from his spine. This is usually fatal. Even when it isn't fatal, it is generally accompanied by severe spinal cord damage. The fact that this kid is walking is amazing. Though it sounds like he may not have had a complete internal decapitation, so partly it is that the kid got lucky and partly a great surgical team.
TLDR: Poor kid broke his skull from the top of his spine, but spinal cord, blood vessels, etc was all intact. His head was still attached in important ways.
They got the bones back together while protecting his spinal cord - a great achievement - and he's walking around today.
