London, May 24 (IANS): A team of surgeons has helped a British man survive after his head snapped off from his spine in a car crash. They re-attached his skull to his spine in a rare surgery, a media report said on Sunday.

Neurosurgeon Anant Kamat led the critical surgery, re-attaching Tony Cowan's skull to his spine with a metal plate and bolts in a rare operation. Now, Cowan hopes to go home soon, Mirror online reported.

Cowan from Newcastle city met with an accident on September 9 last year, when his car hit a speed-bump, spun out of control and wrapped around a telephone pole.

His heart stopped and he had to be resuscitated by paramedics at the scene before being rushed to a hospital. Cowan sustained a fracture in his neck and complete spinal cord injury -- an injury medics describe as almost "unsurvivable".

Cowan, however, was not brain-damaged though his head was snapped off from his spine and it was only being held in place by tissue and muscle at the time of crash.