@jellycats Out of curiosity, I looked at rankings in Pittsburg and UPMC Shadyside is ranked #24 in the nation for neurosurgery by US news. I also found a surgeon listed from there in the Becker Spine Review as a surgeon to know. https://www.beckersspine.com/spine-leaders/item/13640-spine-surgeon-leader-to-know-dr-david-okonkwo-of-the-university-of-pittsburgh.html When I was searching for a neurosurgeon for my cervical surgery, I looked up everything I could find about a doctor I was interested in, and looked for online videos. By doing that, I found presentations by surgeons at conferences and I learned a lot about spine surgery and I read medical literature. That helped me evaluate surgeons who were evaluating me because I knew what their answers should be and I knew if they didn't understand my case or suggested other medical issues, that they were not interested in me as a patient. Another thing I tried to assess was how happy was a doctor in their career life balance. Physician burnout is high among spine surgeons. I felt like I would get better care if my surgeon was focused and interested in his work and happy in his life and I asked other providers I saw at the same place about the surgeon. When I met the surgeon face to face, I knew he was calm, intelligent, and had a great sense of humor. Some of the surgeons I saw previously were arrogant and unwilling to spend time to answer my questions and all of them missed connecting my symptoms to my spine problem, until I got to Mayo. I had my surgery with that calm doctor who loves his job and who knew the right answer about my symptoms. I knew the answer too because I found medical literature with cases like mine and sent that in with my request for an appointment. I watched a video interview I found with Dr. Joseph Maroon at UPMC talking about his life and what he did to overcome his own physician burnout and he is highly regarded there. He said he actually quit neurosurgery for awhile and turned his life around with proper exercise and nutrition which gave him back a better outlook and family life. It's a high stress job. As patients, we don't always think about how much a doctor sacrifices in their own life to be there for us. I want a doctor who wants to be there and will not be distracted by other issues. The spine trauma you have with end plate fractures needs a highly qualified trauma spine specialist. You should get several opinions on how surgery should address that. I would also ask doctors you respect who they would choose if they were the patient with your injuries. It will be a long recovery, and do what you can to insure it will be a success.

I found a Seattle science Foundation video of a surgeon explaining classifications and treatment goals for spine fractures, and he just happens to be at UPMC. That's good news that their doctors are out teaching other surgeons at conferences. The video also mentions other health conditions that are not good for spine surgery. This may not be exactly like your case, but it's interesting to see how doctors think and talk about solving cases. I don't know if there are any surgical photos as I didn't watch all of it. There are x rays, and power point slides. Here is the link.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5bz2Vmxx3Y