C3

“It was not severed, but it was injured, and was injured at the top of his spinal cord, at the area of C3 and C4 that also controls his diaphragm,” Streit said, noting that Prager could not move below his shoulders at the time.

Mitchell, who may need his C3 replaced, said a final scan in a few weeks would show the "full extent of the damage".

He broke his C3 – a vertebrae in the neck.

While plants like rice continued using an old form of photosynthesis known as C3, others like corn and sorghum developed a newer and more efficient version called C4.

However, the vast majority of plants still run on C3 photosynthesis.