LEBANON (Enmaeya News) - October 27, 2025
A young Lebanese doctor achieved a remarkable medical feat in Chicago, hailed in U.S. medical circles as a “miracle,” after saving the life of a child who was not expected to survive.
Dr. Mohammad Baydoun, born in the United States and head of the Neurosurgery Department at the University of Chicago Medical Center, along with his team, successfully reattached the head of a two-year-old boy after it was nearly completely detached from the spine, in one of the most complex surgeries in modern medical history.
Dr. Baydoun told Sky News Arabia: “The story began when the two-year-old American boy, Oliver Stob, was traveling with his family from the U.S. to Mexico. During the trip, a horrific car accident left the parents with minor injuries, while the child sustained life-threatening injuries, suffering a near-complete dislocation between the skull and spine—a very rare condition medically known as Atlanto-Occipital Dislocation, considered one of the most life-threatening injuries”.
He added: “In most cases, this type of dislocation leads to immediate death due to spinal cord rupture and disruption of nerve signals between the brain and the rest of the body. Even in the rare cases where the patient survives, complete paralysis or respiratory failure is inevitable”.
The child was admitted to the Comer Children’s Hospital at the University of Chicago Medical Center, and Dr. Baydoun was called to manage the case as the department head and one of the leading specialists in brain and spinal surgery in the U.S., he said.
Dr. Baydoun explained: “All indicators suggested that saving the child was impossible. Doctors who examined him before his transfer to Chicago agreed that survival chances were nil, and that the best course would be to remove life support and consider organ donation. But I saw something different”.
He continued: “I am a father of two, and I felt that this child was one of mine. In such moments, you don’t think of probabilities, you think of giving life one last chance. Medicine is not just a science, it is also a humanitarian mission”.
According to Baydoun, he decided to take on the challenge with that conviction. “I formed a multidisciplinary medical team including neurosurgeons, orthopedic surgeons, and intensive care specialists, including two Lebanese doctors, and we devised a plan to save the child despite the complexity of the case,” he said.
He added: “After meticulous preparations, neurological tests, and 3D imaging to assess the degree of dislocation, Oliver underwent two consecutive surgeries, each lasting several hours”.
The primary goal of the surgery, Baydoun said, was to reattach the skull to the spine and relieve pressure on sensitive nerves using microsurgical instruments and advanced internal cervical fixation techniques.
Describing the critical moments, he said: “The challenges were immense; any miscalculated movement could have led to instant death. We used precise techniques to stabilize the vertebrae while maintaining cerebral blood flow. It required extreme focus and complete teamwork”.
After the first surgery, Baydoun noted that the child “remained in an induced coma in the ICU. In the following days, he faced severe complications, including two cardiac arrests and repeated seizures, but the team and I refused to give up. We worked around the clock, monitoring every change in vital signs. The belief that we could save him was stronger than all medical statistics suggesting otherwise”.
Gradually, the child began to respond to stimuli and move his limbs. After weeks of careful monitoring and physical therapy, Oliver smiled for the first time, marking the beginning of his recovery.
Oliver’s mother told Sky News Arabia that the moment she saw her son open his eyes again was “like a second birth,” adding: “Dr. Baydoun brought our son back from death. What he did cannot be expressed in words”.
Dr. Baydoun concluded: “After months of rehabilitation, Oliver is now able to walk, talk, and play, gradually returning to his normal life. This case reminds us that medicine is not just a profession, but a profound humanitarian commitment, and that determination and faith make the difference between an ending and a new beginning”.
He noted that the University of Chicago Medical Center announced that Oliver’s case would be included in specialized medical research on pediatric spinal injuries, confirming that what Baydoun and his team accomplished will help develop new therapeutic protocols in this field.
It is worth noting that U.S. media described the event as a “medical miracle by all measures,” highlighting that the operation opened new horizons for understanding the human brain’s capacity to adapt after severe spinal cord injuries.
