Injured Cirque du Soleil acrobat Lisa Skinner suffers C1 fracture in neck & broken arm, must wear braces during ‘long, road to recovery’

Cirque du Soleil trapeze artist Lisa Skinner may take a long time before she could soar up again in the world-famous circus because her Sunday fall caused the former Olympics medalist to suffer a neck fracture and broken arm. It would be a long and difficult journey to recovery for the 35-year-old who would begin the road to recovery by being fitted with a brace on Monday.

Anne Skinner, the gymnast’s mother, says the halo brace to be fitted on Lisa aims to keep the patient’s head still. Doctors estimate it would take six to 12 weeks for the gymnast’s fracture on the neck and broken arm to heal, Brisbane Times reports.

But her arms and legs are working, making the family optimistic Lisa would eventually recover from the circus accident, witnessed by thousands of Australians who watched Cirque du Soleil’s Kooza performance at Skygate. Skinner is still confined at the Royal Brisbane Hospital.

Anne did not see the fall caused by Lisa’s failed attempt to catch the hoop around the hip area but landed lower than expected. Lisa also failed to grab the hoop and fell face down several metres from the air.

Lisa joined Cirque du Soleil in 2010 but was on break in the US when she was invited to join Kooza for a few months. It was her first solo performance with Cirque du Soleil and her first performance in Brisbane, her home city.

According to Medscape, most of patients who suffer from C1 fractures have some form of trauma that may require verbal artery dissection. The patient could also experience neurologic decline. During a C1 fracture, the ring’s posterior aspect becomes disconnected from the anterior aspect, but it is stabilised around the odontoid.

There had been cases when doctors use direct lateral mass screws on C1 fracture patients to allow reduction and compression across the fracture and to preserve upper cervical motion segments.