UChicago Medicine surgeons perform 'miraculous' reattachment of 2-year-old's severed spinal cord

Oliver Staub, 2, smiles while recovering from two complex spinal cord surgeries at UChicago Medicine Comer Children's Hospital that reattached his head to his spinal cord.

With monitors quietly beeping and multiple tubes going into his small body, Oliver Staub lay in a hospital bed as his parents tearfully started saying goodbye.

On April 17, an armored car going 70 mph slammed into the family’s minivan during their vacation in Mexico. Everyone in the car was injured, but no one more than Oliver.

The impact disconnected the 2-year-old's head from his spine, resulting in a transection of his spinal cord.

Doctors offered a grim prognosis. They told Oliver’s parents, Laura and Stefan, that their son’s neck was broken, he was a quadriplegic, brain dead and would die in a matter of days.

But following a surreal turn of events — which included support from German soccer star Toni Kroos, viral Instagram posts, and traveling more than 2,000 miles for two risky spinal cord surgeries at the University of Chicago Medicine Comer Children’s Hospital — Oliver is now talking, laughing, smiling, moving his fingers and toes and starting to breathe on his own.

“To see someone survive an injury like this? Nothing like this has ever been reported in neurosurgery or spinal cord injuries,” said Mohamad Bydon, MD, Chair of the Department of Neurological Surgery at UChicago Medicine and health system leader for Neurological Surgery, who performed Oliver’s surgeries in July with a multidisciplinary team of surgeons.

“We didn’t think he’d ever be able to move, and now he’s moving all four limbs,” Bydon said. “This is a unique and special case. It's beyond our wildest expectations."

Video Transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING] Oliver is a two-year-old boy, whose father is from Germany. His mother is from Mexico. He was living in Germany and was vacationing in Mexico with his two twin brothers, who are older than him, and he was unfortunately in a very severe car accident, which paralyzed him. I think it's more or less 30 miles an hour, and this car was more than so it was super fast. Oliver was in the back seat in the back row and his head was in a weird position. There was no facial features or something, so I went immediately to the back and I checked on him. I screamed his name, Oliver, Oliver, Oliver. There was no reaction. I went to the Twins again. I checked them also. They were OK. And then I removed Oliver from the car seat and I was screaming, help, help, help. He broke his neck. He got a very big surgery, and we are still waiting 72 hours after the surgery to see if there is some connection. Imaging was done at the hospital in Mexico, which revealed that he had a complete disconnection or transection of the spinal cord. In addition, he had a complete break of the vertebral bone. Three neurologists came in and they told us that Oliver is not leaving the hospital. That Oliver has had a stroke. The pictures look very bad. So he will die by his own between 5 to 7 days. We were searching for any option available around the world to give him a better quality of life. They did answer immediately, someone answered. And this lady said, I'm so sorry for what happened to you. Yeah, well, this doctor that I'm working with is Dr. Mohamad Bydon. And for me, it was like, what? This was the very same doctor who wrote the article we read about stem cells. So when she said I was like, yes, this is what we have to do. In less than two or three days, he contacted us. He wanted to have all the MRIs, all the tests, all the images. This is one of the things that University of Chicago does really well. We built a strong team around Oliver's care of pediatricians, pediatric ICU specialists, pediatric anesthesiologists, other neurosurgeons from my department. The right moment, the right place, the right time. Everything just fitted, like all the puzzle tiles were just perfectly fitting in. After Dr. Bydon told us the reality that Oliver is in a big risk, that every movement could break a vessel. So his head was just connected with his skin and with his vessels and a few muscles. And we did the surgery over two surgical days. On one day, we stabilized the posterior or the back of the head and the neck, and we connected the neck to the head in what's called an occipital cervical fusion. We then came from the front with our colleagues from ENT, and we proceeded to perform a reconstruction of the spine anteriorly. Oliver was able to make it through those initial days. And his parents had his bedside at all times. For 4 and 1/2 weeks after this first surgery, his breathing by his own, he has still the ventilator, but he's over breathing it. He is moving his hands. He is telling us when his bladder is full. It's a remarkable story, and it's not a story that people have seen something like it. It's unique. It's unparalleled. It's really such a severe injury. And for him to be paralyzed for this period of time, then to be stabilized and reconstructed and now to see improvements of this nature at this period in time. This is a case study. Coming here was the right decision. I mean, we do think what if, what if, what if. But all that happened for us to be now here with the right doctor in the right hospital in the right moment for us. He didn't promise us a miracle, but he delivered one.

'We have a reason to fight'

As family members gathered at the Mexico City hospital to say goodbye, something incredible happened: Oliver began to show signs of recovery.

His eyes would follow his parents when they were in the room. Stefan and Laura raised the issue with his doctors, who ultimately determined that their son did, in fact, have brain function. They kept his life-sustaining ventilator on.

“It was at that moment that I thought, ‘We have a reason to fight,’” Laura said. “My son was there.”

When doctors could do nothing more for Oliver, they trained his parents on how to care for him and operate his ventilator. Wearing a neck collar and vest to stabilize his head — which, internally, was not connected to his body — Oliver was moved to his grandparents’ home eight hours away, near Morelia, Mexico.

With help from a daily nurse visit, Oliver survived for two months without moving and once having an incident of cardiac arrest. Bydon finds this astounding, given how unlikely it is that someone with an unstable, transected spine could survive at all, much less under the care of his parents.

“If Oliver’s parents and caretakers had made one wrong move in those two months, it could have resulted in death,” Bydon said.

A journey to Chicago

Stefan and Laura researched treatments for severe spinal cord injuries, hoping to provide a better life for their son. They contacted top spinal cord specialists around the world, including Bydon, whose groundbreaking stem cell therapy research impressed them.

They were repeatedly told that surgery, and the travel involved, would be too risky. But Bydon saw hope, in part because Oliver had survived this long.

“You should never count out a 2-year-old. They can surprise you,” Bydon said. “But it would require a complex multidisciplinary team, which is where the University of Chicago could help.”

The surgery needed to be done as soon and safely as possible, Bydon told them.

But travel to the United States for the surgery would be difficult and expensive. The Staubs received aid from family, friends and charities, but were still far short of what they needed.

Global outreach and support

A friend encouraged them to write to the Toni Kroos Foundation, the soccer player’s charity which helps seriously ill children. Stefan and Laura knew it was a long shot.

Two days later, the phone rang at midnight. It was foundation director Claudia Bartz. She’d seen Oliver’s journey on Instagram and was so moved by his story, she decided the foundation would cover the cost of Oliver’s surgery and transport to Chicago.

“We cried and cried. We couldn’t believe it,” Laura said, adding that they only posted on Instagram to keep their friends and family updated on Oliver. “None of this would have been possible without Toni Kroos.”

Oliver soon became a top-trending news story in Germany and their Instagram account blew up, going from a few hundred followers to more than 100,000. Strangers across the world continue to hold fundraisers and prayer vigils, sending the family encouraging messages and donations for his medical expenses.

“We would gladly trade all of this to go back to our normal life,” said Laura, who still has large scars on her head from the accident. “What I’m seeing here? It’s miraculous. We call it ‘The Oliver Effect.’ This is bigger than us.”

‘Harrowing’ surgery, major recovery

When Oliver arrived at Comer in July via medical jet, Bydon performed the first surgery, an occipital cervical fusion, with a team of UChicago Medicine surgeons.

This surgery for a 2-year-old is risky, not only because of how long it is, but also because a toddler cannot tolerate blood loss.

The surgery involved reconstructing Oliver’s spine, repairing his spinal cord and stabilizing the back of his head to his cervical spine using titanium rods and screws.

The second surgery, two days later, stabilized the front of his spinal cord and repaired a spinal cord herniation.

“Those first few days after the surgeries were harrowing,” Bydon said. “His heart stopped at one point, and he had swelling in the brain.”

But about five days later, Oliver was making progress and smiled for the first time since the accident. One month later, he was able to grab his mom’s hand, push someone away and recognize the sensation that he needs to urinate. Most impressively, Bydon said, he can now take breaths on his own.

“We know the spine is communicating with the brain and body again,” Bydon said.

Moving forward with family

Oliver was discharged from Comer Children’s on August 15. The family will permanently move from Germany to Mexico, near Laura’s family, and now have hope for the future.

Oliver will have regular physical therapy and take medications for inflammation. In about six months, he’ll be able to remove his neck brace, Bydon said.

Laura and Stefan plan to return to Comer in spring 2026, when Bydon may be able to use novel stem cell therapy clinical trials to improve Oliver’s physical functions, pending special FDA approval.

Stefan and Laura said they’ll always be grateful to Bydon and UChicago Medicine.

“He didn’t promise us a miracle,” Laura said, “but he delivered one.”

Why Choose UChicago Medicine for Neurosurgical Care?

UChicago Medicine is devoted to the evaluation and treatment of diseases of the central nervous system. We use a full range of neuromedical and neurosurgical technologies to provide the most up-to-date and effective treatments for the entire spectrum of neurological disease.

Learn more about our neurosurgery program

Mohamad Bydon, MD

Mohamad Bydon, MD, is a compassionate and highly skilled neurosurgeon specializing in complex spinal conditions. International patients from global destinations, as well as national patients from across the United States, seek his expertise in robotic, minimally invasive and endoscopic spine surgery.

Learn more about Dr. Bydon