A 30-year-old woman has just obtained more than a million dollars in compensation after suffering a stroke following neck manipulation during a chiropractic session.
- A stroke is characterized by the blockage or rupture of a blood vessel in the brain.
- The average age of a stroke is 74 years old. Nevertheless, 25% of patients are under 65 years old and 10% under 45 years old.
Becca Barlow, 31, used to see a chiropractor because of neck pain. But his last session was far from bringing him the desired relief. Almost immediately after adjusting her neck, she felt the first symptoms of a stroke.
Chiropractic: stroke almost immediately after manipulation
The 30-year-old told the American magazine Louisville Courier Journal that she fell off her chiropractor’s table right after her neck was manipulated. She also vomited. As a nurse, she quickly understood the origin of her symptoms: a stroke.
She experienced dizziness, lightheadedness, numbness and nausea, other signals of a blockage of blood flow to the brain.
The American then asked the staff of the chiropractic office to call the emergency services. She lost consciousness and was put in an ambulance, which took her to Norton Brownsboro Hospital, Kentucky.
Under the care of doctors, she underwent emergency surgery to repair three torn arteries in her neck. After recovering from the stroke, she sued the chiropractor she believes was responsible for her stroke.
The practitioner’s attorney claimed that when a patient experiences a stroke immediately after an adjustment, it was likely due to pre-existing injuries or risk factors. However, the jury sided with the 30-something. She obtained 1,130,800 dollars in compensation, part of which is dedicated to the reimbursement of medical expenses.
Chiropractic: manipulations of the neck can be risky
Several controlled studies have shown an association between cervical manipulation and cervical arterial dissections, leading to an increased risk of stroke in young patients.
Faced with these elements, the American Heart Association (AHA) indicated in a statement issued in 2014 and updated in 2022 that if the overall probability of a stroke is low, patients undergoing neck manipulation should be informed of the risks.
Guillaume Giordano Orsini, doctor at the University Hospital of Reims and co-author of an article on the subject published in The Journal of Critical Care Medicine in 2019, explained for his part to BFM-TV : “IAll it takes is poor handling or malformation for the walls of the artery to peel off. This causes a hematoma, then a stroke.” However, he acknowledged that these types of complications are rare: “What we have most frequently are increases in pain or episodes of recurrence. Repeated manipulations can create fragility in the ligaments, especially in the case of torticollis or lumbago.”
