A fall from a ladder that caused a serious fracture in his spine could have left a 40-year-old man with a bent neck, if not for the efforts of a surgeon at Jaslok hospital, who not only saved him, but also straightened his neck.

The patient, Ramesh Ushire, who works in a bank and is a resident of Lohoner in Nashik, had undergone a surgery last year after being involved in a motorcycle accident. To complicate matters, he also had a condition called Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS), where the spine becomes stiff and fused over time, causing pain and limited movement. In Ushire’s case, parts of his spine were completely fused to a point that he had a ‘bamboo spine.’ Ushire was rushed in an ambulance from his village in Deola taluka to Pedder Road to the hospital after he fell on August 6.