mostly nonfiction and bakersfield news | June 30th, 2009
Man Gets New Round Head
According to ABC23, Lee Lyle, of Bakersfield, Calif., had a huge indentation in the side his head for more than a year. Head injuries can cause the most amazing disfigurements. Missing or removed skull from deep head wounds can create deep cranial indentations that are easily noticeable even when healed.
Lyle’s horrid cranial scar was the result of a motorcycle crash in April of 2008 after he was cut off by a car. Bakersfield.com reported that Lyle had been cut off by a truck. The TV station said Lyle claimed he was wearing a helmet at the time of the crash. However, intense swelling post-crash forced doctors to remove part of Lyle’s skull to relieve pressure. Afterwards, a huge portion of the right side of his head looked like a smashed pumpkin or damaged Paper Mache puppet head.
See video of Lyle’s dented head: WATCH
The TV station reported that doctors had placed a piece of Lyle’s removed skull into his abdomen for to keep the bone tissue alive. But after he healed, Lyle’s family was unable to pay for the surgery that was needed to piece his head back together. Bakersfield.com reported Kern Medical Center’s Chief Executive Officer Paul Hensler said the hospital would have been happy to assist Lyle if he had long ago applied for MediCal. Either way, Lyle was stuck with a caved-in head until a local plastic surgeon volunteered to help.
On June 26, Lyle had his head reconstructed by Dr. Vipul Dev, a plastic surgeon who performed an abdominal skull flap removal for cranial replacement surgery to repair Lyle’s partial skull. His bandages were removed on Monday.
According to the TV station Web site, “Lyle was amazed and the sight he saw when he was able to see his round head.”
Lyle said to the TV station that his head “is nice and round. All I ever wanted is to have Humpty Dumpty put back together again.”
*image on homepage from ABC23
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