Hocking Hills maintenance worker survives rare internal decapitation

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]Are you famous?

[00:00:02]>> Not to be.

[00:00:03]>> 32-year-old Philip Polley wasn't supposed to walk.

[00:00:07]>> I believe God, he had his hands on on me.

[00:00:11]>> His doctors say people who suffer an injury like his.

[00:00:14]>> I have no broken bones. And that sucker hit me hard.

[00:00:19]>> Are usually paralyzed or die.

[00:00:21]>> After the initial hit, I was just like kind of stunned like did that just happen? Hen County 911 Sheriff's Office.

[00:00:30]>> Pley wasn't hit by a car.

[00:00:32]>> We just had a maintenance worker there at the park get hit by a tree as it was.

[00:00:37]He's unconscious.

[00:00:38]>> I started pushing this large tree off the road.

[00:00:44]>> Bodywn camera from a state natural resource officer shows the Hawking Hill state maintenance worker clearing fallen trees from the road back in March when disaster struck.

[00:00:59]You okay? Hey. Hey.

[00:01:02]>> Hi's foot is stuck on the gas, pushing the tree branch against his neck. Bill, >> before the officer can turn off the machine, the branch about 6 to 8 in in diameter is slowly moving Poly's skull off his spine.

[00:01:18]>> Trevor, I need you here now with the chainsaw.

[00:01:21]>> If it didn't stop, it probably would have ripped my head off. The tree branch was acting like a guillotine.

[00:01:28]>> I don't know what to do. I can't get it off of him.

[00:01:30]>> Polley told us at the time he remembers a >> pop or a crack or something like that.

[00:01:35]And I had a decapitation.

[00:01:39]>> He told us as he sat in the seat of that front loader, he could think of one thing.

[00:01:44]>> I'd start thinking of my children because >> because this father was about to lose his world. It was really nice being sad and I just thought how much I was going to miss them, miss my babies.

[00:02:06]Med bag because resource officers carry trauma kits. That neck brace would keep Phil's neck from moving, would help save his life.

[00:02:17]Other crews worked to saw the giant branch off Pulley's chest.

[00:02:22]Yeah, he's breathing.

[00:02:26]>> With an ambulance 20 minutes away and a medical helicopter unable to fly because of weather, co-workers at the scene kept him alive until emergency crews arrived and later intubated him to keep him breathing. Another life-saving strategy.

[00:02:40]>> Had you been working by yourself, where do you think you'd be today?

[00:02:44]>> Oh, well, I'd probably be dead.

[00:02:48]>> Enter Dr. Dr. Victor Awar, an Ohio Health neurosurgeon at Grant Hospital.

[00:02:54]>> He had what's an internal decapitation.

[00:02:57]It is a separation of the skull from the spine.

[00:03:01]>> X-rays show the hardware needed to affix Pulley's skull back to his spine.

[00:03:06]>> We uh put a plate and screws at his skull to anchor that down and then put screws at C2, C3, C4, and then attached it with the uh with the rod.

[00:03:17]>> Dr. Aar says when Pulley arrived, the space between his spine and skull measured 9 mm.

[00:03:24]>> This is supposed to only be two mm wide from here to here. It's 9 mm wide.

[00:03:30]>> He told us had his neck moved a millimeter more, paralysis was certain from the neck down.

[00:03:36]>> We're talking that he could have died, you know, 2 millime. If he moved that much more, he would have probably severed his spinal cord. That's why seeing him walk when we met him less than a month after his accident is extraordinary. Dr. Awar says this kind of injury isn't uncommon, but surviving is.

[00:03:54]>> About 50% of patients who have this kind of injury die at the scene. So, of the 50% that make it to the hospital, a significant of a number of those patients are paralyzed.

[00:04:07]>> What would you like to say to your surgeon?

[00:04:09]>> Good job.

[00:04:12]nailed it.

[00:04:13]>> Polley says he's eager to finish rehab and get back to the state park with his team. He hopes his brush with death will inspire others to remember how fragile life can be.

[00:04:24]>> Love deeply and have grace with people and be patient. Be kind.

[00:04:32]Tomorrow is not guaranteed.

[00:04:36]>> I'll get you going back this way, too.

[00:04:39]>> Watch out, Jar.

[00:04:45]An amazing story. This accident comes on the heels of a state examination of emergency response times in state parks.

[00:04:51]Hawking Hill State Park has the longest response time of any state park, which is 20 minutes from dispatch to patient.

[00:04:58]The Ohio Department of Natural Resources has increased the number of its officers since Governor Mike Dwine took office from 140 officers in 2018 to 179 today.

[00:05:07]But the state doesn't provide 247 protection. It continues to rely on local agencies for support.

[00:05:14]>> Wow.

[00:05:15]>> So many questions. What a miracle. So many questions about goosebumps.

[00:05:18]>> A chopper. First of all, a chopper is not going to land on a two-lane road.

[00:05:21]It's not wide enough. You got wires and trees and everything else. I've never even heard of putting the bracket on the neck like somebody doing that. His doctor just pulls it out.

[00:05:31]>> He So many things had to happen correctly for him to be alive today. And all of them came through. just it was just amazing from everyone's report from the from the people that responded on the scene to the doctor to his health and his his stature also kept him alive and also his determination and he's got such a great spirit. Hopefully everything knock on wood goes well for him the rest of >> and it sounds like thank God that they travel with a neck brace because they said if his neck had moved just a little bit he'd be paralyzed.

[00:05:57]>> That is amazing. That is a miracle.

[00:06:00]>> Yeah.

[00:06:00]>> No doubt about that. Great story. any one of those things that doesn't line up and it's it's >> meant to be here. It's not his time. He is happy to be a dad. Good job, Doc.

[00:06:10]Nailed it. He's still got a sense of humor.

[00:06:14]>> Well, we wish him the best continued recovery. Thank you, chemists.