Following a terrible riding accident, a 15-year-old Briton almost lost her jaw. But thanks to the work of a surgeon at Sheffield Children’s Hospital (UK), she was able to regain a normal face. Grateful, she wrote to Queen Elizabeth II with the aim that the latter honor the doctor in question.
“I held my jaw in my hands”. In August, 15-year-old Emily Eccles nearly lost her jaw in the UK after falling from a horse. But Doctor Ricardo Mohammed-Ali managed to recreate her face identically and the young girl was able to find her way back to school just one month after her accident. Extremely grateful, the teenager is fighting today for the surgeon to be knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
It’s during a horseback ride in Derbyshyre that everything changes for Emily. Frightened by the roar of a car, the beast propels the young girl head first against a wooden post. The unfortunate woman then finds herself with the left side of her jaw almost completely torn off, which forces her to hold the remains of her face in her hands to prevent the layer of skin from tearing completely.
“Once in the ambulance, I looked down and I saw my teeth and my bones. I was holding my jaw in my hands”, tells the young girl to the British press. “Other than war wounds, I’ve never seen this before,” confirms Dr Ricardo Mohammed-Ali who meets Emily at Sheffield Children’s Hospital.
Light scars that should all be gone within a year
“It could have been worse, but it’s one of the most serious injuries I’ve seen in a child outside of conflict zones. Emily’s injury was significant in that the entire left side of his lower jaw, from the front of the jaw to the joint, was torn from the face and held only by a small strip of skin. The nerves that supply sensation to the lip and chin were torn on both sides,” says does he to the British press.
The surgeon then operates on the adolescent in emergency. Relying on 3D printing techniques, he manages to reconstruct his face. Using three titanium plates, he realigns the fracture. This material is regularly used by surgeons because of its resistance and because it passes through metal detectors at airports. Once the plates are in place, the doctors sew up the skin of Emily who receives a total of 160 stitches.
The 5.30 a.m. operation is over, the young girl has one missing tooth, but she is out of the woods and can recognize herself in the mirror. After eleven days of convalescence in the hospital, she returns home. Today, the scars are light have already begun to disappear. “A year from now you won’t even be able to tell anything happened,” Dr. Mohammed-Ali reportedly told his family, according to an article. on the hospital site. “We can’t thank him enough. Everything he’s done in his career up to that point led to him being on call that night. If things had gone differently, maybe I wouldn’t have couldn’t have had a lower jaw,” says Emily.
Parents are raising money for the hospital where their daughter was treated
Very grateful, the patient wrote to the Queen of England asking her to honor the surgeon. Her secretary informed her that her request had been forwarded to the organization in charge. “Saving people’s lives and bringing them back to normal certainly deserves some form of recognition,” explains the young girl who has now returned to school and even plans to go back on horseback. But “it’s my parents that I have to convince,” she says. “I am extremely satisfied with his recovery so far,” said Dr. Mohammed-Ali.
Delighted with her “miraculous” work, Emily’s parents are determined to support Sheffield Children’s Hospital fundraiser to install a heliport above the establishment to facilitate emergency arrivals of small patients. To do this, they organized a garden party at their home and set up an online appeal page.
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