It sounds like something out of a Stephen King novel, but Australian doctors have reattached the head of a child who suffered an “internal decapitation.”

Sixteen-month-old Jaxon Taylor was involved in a car accident while with his mother and sister when his head snapped forward with such force that it tore free from his body — severing two vertebrae and tearing ligaments, the Daily Beast reports.

Usually when such an “internal decapitation”n happens, the spinal cord is severed, and it is usually fatal.

But in Jaxon’s case, his spinal cord stayed intact. Once they stabilized him, doctors were able to brace his neck, and perform an elaborate surgery that will allow him to live a normal life.