28-Year-Old Man Suffers 'Major Stroke' After Cracking Neck and Hearing 'Pop'
Josh Hader, a 28-year-old husband and father of two from Oklahoma suffered a major stroke after stretching his neck to alleviate some tightness and pain he had been experiencing for more than a week.
Hader told NBC News he was working from home on March 14 when he made a movement common to many people: he rolled his neck over to the right, trying to get some relief from the nagging pain he had been experiencing.
“I used my hand to apply a slight bit more of pressure, and then heard a pop,” Hader said. “Then everything on my left side started to go numb.”
Hader had a feeling that he was having a stroke and called his wife to let her know. When he looked in the mirror, Hader did not see any facial drooping, which left him feeling that maybe he did not need to be concerned after all.
28-Year-Old Man Suffers a ‘Major Stroke’ After Cracking His Neck While Stretching https://t.co/znpCMD7Kfk
— People (@people) May 3, 2019
But when Hader tried walking to his fridge for an ice pack, he said he could not make himself walk in a straight line.
“I was tripping over myself trying to walk straight,” Hader said. “It was actually impressive that I couldn’t walk straight whatsoever.”
Hader’s father-in-law drove him to the emergency room, where he struggled just to make it inside the doors.
“Everything started spinning. I could barely walk,” Hader said.
At Mercy Hospital, Hader learned that he had suffered a “major stroke” caused by a blood clot.
It was critical that he received a dose of tPA, a tissue plasminogen activator drug that works to dissolve the clot and improve blood flow to the area of the brain that has been deprived of blood flow, according to the National Stroke Association.
“I remember hearing a doctor at the ER yelling out to staff, ‘we have 12 minutes to administer [the drug treatment],’” Hader said. “That’s when everything kind of landed home.”
Hospital staff told Hader that he had suffered an ischemic stroke, caused by a small tear in his vertebral artery. His doctor told him that the way he had stretched his neck had caused the tear, which triggered the stroke.
Doctors told Hader they see about three or four cases each year of strokes caused by a torn vertebral artery, but typically the tear happens after a high-impact event such as a car collision.
“I was the only self-manipulation case they had ever seen,” Hader said. “Great way to break a record.”
Last month, a 23-year-old paramedic in London named Natalie Kunicki suffered a similar stroke after cracking her neck, People reported.
“The doctors told me later that just stretching of my neck had caused my vertebral artery to rupture,” she said.
Hader is back home, recovering and trying to adjust to all of the physical demands his body cannot meet. It has been a struggle not to be able to pick up his children and help his wife with their care, he said.
Hader still feels the need to crack his neck sometimes, but he has to fight the temptation.
“I still wake up every once in a while with the urge, and I have to stop myself,” he said. “It’s still a struggle, but I definitely don’t want to pop my neck anymore.”
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