Doctors at UChicago Medicine saved the life of a 2-year-old boy who suffered a catastrophic spinal injury that is typically not survived.

Two-year-old Oliver Staub is from Germany, and if you saw him now, you may not realize how badly he was hurt.

In April, during a vacation in Mexico, the Staub family's minivan was struck by an armored car. As a result, Oliver experienced "a complete disconnection or transection of the spinal cord."

"In addition, he had a complete break of the vertebrae," said Dr. Mohamad Bydon.

As his mother described it, Oliver's head was essentially not attached to his body internally. They were shocked, and doctors told him he would likely die.

"Oliver will not make it but he had a happy life," his father Stefan Staub recalled. "He will not suffer anymore."

But he survived for weeks and his parents started searching for options. They found Dr. Bydon at UChicago Medicine. He is a spinal cord specialist and pioneer in stem cell therapy research.

"So we built a large team of surgeons and physicians to help take care of Oliver," he said. "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."

His father said that within four or five weeks after the surgeries, Oliver started moving his hands. His mother said with each passing day, he became more like himself again, smiling and singing.

Oliver is now in Mexico. In about six months, after physical therapy, Oliver will be able to remove his neck brace.