Broke my neck when i was 10 years old on my yz80f. 5th gear band into a wire fence. I was thrown and landed on my head badly. It was like 1980 and either X-rays or doctors were poor quality and they did not pick up the break. They said i had brused my spine and kept me in a brace for 4 months.
18 years later im riding my Registered TT250 on the road. I turn my neck right to look for traffic and Bang it sticks there, i cant even look back to see where i am going and its painful. I am trying to ride sideways and control it but i hit the gutter and came off. When i get some proper x-rays done it turns out my c1 c2 is completely broken and holding together with mainly scar tissue etc.
It was so urgent they had me in within 3 weeks for a c1 c2 fusion and that is on the public system/Medicare. It would be hard to get in that fast if you were paying. Anyhow, They fused it with wires and a bone graft from my hip. Took me 6-9 months to recover but as soon as i did i bought me an xr600. Bush only from now on but i rode it hard came off a few times, jarred my neck etc but figured it reasonably stable now..
Started getting a big sore lump on the back of my neck were the fusion is . When it was there my neck was very sore and i was tasting spinal fluid as it was dripping into my syness. After 1000 test an MRI finally shows that the wires are broken and so is the bone graft
FFS!
Again the say its very unstable and they need me in with 1 month to sort it out
Now i have two titanium plates, 4 screws and another graft from my hip to fuse my c1 c2. Was done 2 years ago now and feels more solid than ever. Just bought myself a CRF450R to make me feel better