{"id":209501,"date":"2021-03-24T07:00:42","date_gmt":"2021-03-24T04:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/mans-miracle-recovery-after-skull-cracked-like-a-jigsaw\/"},"modified":"2021-03-24T07:00:42","modified_gmt":"2021-03-24T04:00:42","slug":"mans-miracle-recovery-after-skull-cracked-like-a-jigsaw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/mans-miracle-recovery-after-skull-cracked-like-a-jigsaw\/","title":{"rendered":"#Man’s miracle recovery after skull cracked like a ‘jigsaw’"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Man’s miracle recovery after skull cracked like a ‘jigsaw’<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n

Robert Annunziato was playing centerfield in the last game<\/a> of a trip<\/a>leheader softball match when a ball was hit deep, flying between him and the left fielder.<\/p>\n

The pair both ran toward it, with Staten Island resident Annunziato, now 40, diving for the ball and his teammate leaping over him to avoid a collision.<\/p>\n

But his teammate\u2019s knee crashed into Annunziato\u2019s head. \u201cIt cracked the left side of my skull, broke every bone but my jaw on my left side and my eye was bulging out,\u201d Annunziato told The Post of the game that changed his life on Nov. 10, 2019. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was out cold.\u201d<\/p>\n

Luckily the field was only a few blocks from Staten Island University Hospital. When he arrived by ambulance, a CAT scan revealed that he had an acute subdural hematoma. He was also paralyzed on one side. <\/p>\n

\"Robert
Robert Annunziato cracked his skull into more than 10 pieces during an on-field collision. Doctors used 20 screws and eight plates to repair him (at left, holding the jersey docs cut off to treat his injuries).<\/figcaption>
Annie Wermiel\/NY Post<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dr. Ronit Gilad, the neurosurgeon working that day, was shocked such a gruesome head trauma had occurred on the softball field.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis injury was similar to a high-speed car accident,\u201d Gilad told The Post.<\/p>\n

She remembers: \u201cHe quickly became unresponsive, so he needed to be intubated. And his pupil on his left side was becoming larger than the right, which means there was a lot of blood accumulating on that side of the brain.\u201d<\/p>\n

During a two-hour surgery, Gilad and her team took out the fractured pieces of skull, rearranged them and secured them with 20 titanium screws and eight plates.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was like a jigsaw,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was like 10 or 15 pieces, and some were very small and some were larger. We had to reshape the skull as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gilad also removed the hematoma and coagulated the artery causing the bleeding. She emphasized that his recovery hinged not only on the surgery but also the aftercare \u2014 and his own will.<\/p>\n

\"Robert
Robert Annunziato, middle, with his baseball team before the accident.<\/figcaption>
Courtesy of Robert Annunziato<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The married father of two, who works in IT, was placed in the ICU, where a medical team monitored the pressure in his head. According to Annunziato, doctors expected him to be there for at least six weeks. <\/p>\n

On Nov. 27 \u2014 the night before Thanksgiving \u2014 he woke up. Though his family was relieved, he doesn\u2019t remember it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t have the capacity to really understand it fully. Your brain is kind of up in the clouds.\u201d <\/p>\n

He gained just a little bit of clarity on Dec. 2, when his softball teammates visited him in the hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cI asked my friends, \u2018When I dove for the ball, did I catch it?\u2019 They were like, \u2018It just nipped off the end of glove, I hate to tell you.’\u201d<\/p>\n

A week later, he was transferred to JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Institute in Edison, NJ, where he would undergo physical, occupational and speech therapy. \u201cI had the same doctor as Tracy Morgan,\u201d Annunziato said, referencing the comedia<\/a>n who recovered at JRI after a bus crash in 2014 left him in a coma.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Initially, he was struggling to remember much and was frustrated. One night while experiencing horrific stomach pain, he told a nurse he wanted to end his life. <\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like I wanted to die,\u201d said Annunziato. As he was writhing in pain, he spoke to his deceased grandmother. \u201cI said, \u2018Gram, please bring me back, I am sorry.\u2019 I fell asleep and when I woke up, everything changed. My brain stared working.\u201d <\/p>\n

He started shattering expectations with his progress. On Christmas morning, he received the best gift ever: He was discharged.<\/p>\n

On Feb. 12, after a few good months at home, he and his family got to meet Gilad, the doctor who had reconstructed his skull, for what he calls \u201cthe first time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was so nervous. She walked in and I gave her a hug and thanked her for saving my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Robert
The Staten Island family man is grateful to be able to run again and has returned to work full time.<\/figcaption>
Courtesy of Robert Annunziato<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gilad, who also cared for Annunziato while he was in a coma after the surgery, called the meeting \u201cemotional\u201d and \u201csatisfying\u201d: \u201cIn our line of work, we see some really bad outcomes that you can\u2019t help, so you have to hold onto these successes to keep you going.\u201d <\/p>\n

Annunziato \u2014 who is now back to work full time, can run again and is playing basketball \u2014 said his gratitude runs deep. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a reason God brought me back. There is a reason the doctors were able to save me. I think about that every day, and I try to find out every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

But will he be diving for a fly ball on the softball field anytime soon? Annunziato said he physically could, \u201cbut I am just not taking the chance.\u201d\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Man’s miracle recovery after skull cracked like a ‘jigsaw’” Robert Annunziato was playing centerfield in the last game of a tripleheader softball match when a ball was hit deep, flying between him and the left fielder. The pair both ran toward it, with Staten Island resident Annunziato, now 40, diving for the ball and his…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":209502,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/03\/bobby-annunziato-main.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[99053,77265,72462,16338,71556],"class_list":["post-209501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-3-24-21","tag-head-injuries","tag-medical-miracles","tag-softball","tag-staten-island"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}