In September of 2011, Rachel was driving to work on a typically clear, sunny day in Phoenix. As she turned from a side street onto Cave Creek Road, she was hit broadside by a mid-sized pickup truck going an estimated 50 miles an hour. The truck smashed violently into her driver’s side door causing her to be internally decapitated – her skull actually was severed from her spine. Miraculously, Bailey has not only cheated death, but was saved from permanent paralysis as well.

 The force of the crash knocked Rachel’s car completely off the road.

According to Gianni Vishteh, MD, a trauma neurosurgeon at John C. Lincoln North Mountain Hospital, internal decapitation injuries are almost always fatal. Those few who do survive are usually paralyzed.

Dr. Vishteh says. “When such injuries occur, the head is only supported via soft tissue and skin. Movement one way or the other can lead to catastrophic spinal cord injury.”

At any point after the impact, the slightest wrong move – something as simple as a cough – could have resulted in permanent damage to Rachel’s spinal cord. Rachel’s father, David Bailey, admits he has “no idea at all” how it is that the injury was not more damaging than it was.

“After the truck hit her,” he says, “her car crossed the street and bounced up over a curb. After the front wheels bumped up over the curb, the back wheels went over as well. That alone seems to me would be enough to give you whiplash.”

A man working at an auto body shop near the scene of the accident ran across the street to Rachel’s car, finding her unconscious. He, himself, had been in a very serious accident at one time and knew the importance of keeping her head still. Despite the fact that there was some smoke in the car, he did not try to get her out of the vehicle but rather held her head against the headrest until paramedics arrived.