Question
My husband died in a motorcycle collision, and of course, I have many questions.  Two of his injuries were flail chest, and a fracture with dislocation at T8.  According to his autopsy report, he actually grew 2 1/2 inches in his death.  Does this mean that his spinal cord was separated by 2 1/2 inches?  If so, had that been his only injury,  what would his life have been like, or would that alone have killed him?

Answer
Dear Kim,  I am so sorry to hear of your husbands death. I am not a doctor, but based on what you stated my guess is the flail chest injury is what killed him. Because a Thoracic vertebrae injury with spinal cord damage usually results in paraplegia, which means paralysis and loss of sensation from the waist down. Which would mean he would have needed a manual wheelchair and when driving a car he would have needed hand controls. Of course there may have been other complications from the dislocated thoracic vertebrae that I couldn't begin to know now. I hope this helps you, take care and best wishes.

Sincerely, Ken