Gordon Moore, a 72-year-old British man, no longer needs the metal plate that was inserted into his head 50 years ago, when a car accident destroyed part of his skull. Why doesn’t he need it? Because the missing bone has grown back. When the front of his skull was destroyed, doctors implanted a titanium plate in the hole. Three years later, Moore was involved in yet another crash. While this accident was less devastating, he still walked away with a dent in his metal plate after his head flew into the windshield. Surgeons decided to remove the plate recently, after it broke through some skin and caused an infection. But when they cut Moore's head open, doctors were amazed to find that his skull had re-grown with the same contour as the plate. While bone growth is normal in children, it’s extremely rare in adults. In fact, it is such an anomaly that no one has really kept count of the number of times this kind of re-growth has happened. The Telegraph reports:
"It's certainly very rare, but it's very rare to remove a metal plate after this period of time. I had never heard of one being taken out after more than 50 years," [says Newcastle Hospital consultant neurologist Param Bhattahiri, who was in charge of Gordon’s treatment].
"We had no idea what we were going to find underneath, but I didn't expect to find a new skull." Experts are now waiting to perform more scans of Gordon's head to check the thickness and strength of the new bone.
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