Hi, my boyfriend broke his neck in three places a month ago. He has been wearing a neck brace. After he was treated by his original doctor in Flagstaff, who had said that most likely the breaks would heal fine on their own, he flew to Illinois to recover there. He has been seeing a doctor in Springfield IL every two weeks, and that doctor is concerned that it appears two of his vertebrae are moving apart slightly... getting further away from each other. The doctor then said that because of this, most likely a cervical fusion surgery will have to be done on the two vertebrae.

He is scheduled to see his original Flagstaff doctor on the 14th to see what he thinks. But for peace-of-mind reasons... does the Springfield doctor's advice make sense to any of you (based on the information I provided)?? I cannot find any cases online where fusion surgery was performed because of two vertebrae moving slightly apart (it is my understanding that the vertebrae breaks themselves are healing fine, it is just that the are slightly further away from each other than they were 2 weeks ago.