Matt Trammel
Sponsor: Deanna Hanson

Mississippi
Cameron (Age 9)
Car Accident

Cameron has beaten all odds simply by being alive today. Cameron was involved in a car accident that resulted in what’s called an internal decaptation where his skull detached from his first and second vertebrae. This injury typically causes fatalities – those who do survive usually end up in a quadriplegic state dependant on a ventilator for the remainder of their lives.

In two separate procedures, surgeons removed a piece of glass from his neck and stabilized his head and spinal column. Occupational, physical, art and recreational therapies followed.

Not only did Cameron survive his life-threatening injury, he went home from the hospital just one short month later. The only lingering effect of the injury is a slight lisp, for which he receives speech therapy.

“All in all, he has had an amazing attitude throughout this entire ordeal. Looking back, it’s astonishing to think how far he’s come in such a relatively short amount of time and he’s really never complained,” says his mother, Nichole Smyly.