The woman who had to lift her own head!

Thea Maxfield, England, suffered a "hangman's break" a clean break of the upper cervical vertebra when she fell from her dressage horse.

She tried to get out of the animal's way as it galloped around after the fall, but when she tried to pick herself up, the horrified 26-year-old found her head stayed where it was.

Realising she had to move to avoid being stomped on, Ms Maxfield cupped her hands around her own head and lifted it into place to avoid damaging her spinal cord.

"As soon as I came off the horse I knew something was wrong. I went to get up but my head stayed on the floor,'' she said. "I couldn't move my neck or my head and I had to literally pick my head up and carry it in my hands."

Doctors initially warned she may be permanently paralysed.

But incredibly after using a revolutionary fixed brace connected to a computer by tiny sensors for three months to help fuse the bones back together, she is now back riding seven months after the accident.