A mom is sharing a warning about a life-threatening complication she suffered after a chiropractic neck adjustment she received in hopes of curing her relentless headache.
Jaycie Conley, from California, visited the chiropractor for a neck adjustment in December 2021 to cure the headache she blamed on stress and sleep deprivation from taking care of her infant.
Hours later, she felt nauseous and said she went cross-eyed. Concerned, she returned to the chiropractor who adjusted her neck again.
She claims the practitioner told her she was having a ‘weird reaction’ to the adjustment and so Conley went home. However, she eventually went to the hospital when her symptoms did not improve.
There, she was stunned to be told she’d suffered a bilateral vertebral artery dissection (VAD), a rare life-threatening condition where the arteries in the neck tear simultaneously.
About 6,800 Americans per year suffer a VAD and a 2024 study reported an incidence of two dissections per 100,000 people. Tearing both arteries at the same time – bilaterally – is very rare and occurs in about 38 percent of VAD cases, roughly 2,600 cases per year.
Conley’s bilateral VAD triggered two mini strokes and she went on to have a third, more severe stroke in the hospital.
Doctors warn chiropractic neck manipulation heightens the risk of VAD, and it is estimated that one in 20,000 spinal manipulations results in the condition.
Jaycie Conley visited the chiropractor for a neck adjustment in December 2021 for a relentless headache
Now, she said she has been left permanently disabled as she suffers with right-side weakness and speech difficulties
Conley,38, said she first visited the chiropractor in hopes of easing her ‘giant’ headache that she thought was from stress and long nights caring for her six-month-old son.
She said: ‘I remember thinking I slept wrong, like I kinked my neck or something, so I let it go for a couple of days but the pain was getting worse so I contacted a [chiropractor] that I’d worked with before.’
While immediately after the neck adjustment, she didn’t notice anything amiss, a few hours later, she got nauseous and ‘my eyes [went] cross-eyed by themselves.’
When she texted the chiropractor, she claims the practitioner told Conley to come back in for another adjustment.
Conley added: ‘She still had no wherewithal to tell me what she was thinking was happening and I had no idea. I didn’t even know [a stroke] was a possible outcome.
‘She said “it could be you’re just having a weird reaction.” She said if it keeps happening go to the doctor. She said that several times. It was alarming the way she wasn’t alarmed.’
After returning home, Conley decided to visit the hospital to rule anything out, where she had an MRI scan that revealed she’d suffered two mini strokes.
After suffering the third stroke, Conley had to stay in the hospital for five days in intensive care.
Conley was in the hospital in the intensive care unit for five days after she had three strokes
The mom-of-two had experienced a third stroke while in the hospital
Later, Conley claims doctors told her the bilateral VAD was likely from the ‘velocity’ of the chiropractor’s neck adjustment.
Conley said: ‘I was completely shocked that going to a chiropractor had contributed to this. I thought “I’m 33, how could this happen?”
‘To be 33 and basically be an elderly person in the ICU, not able to use my hands, not able to stand up and walk, not able to use the bathroom on my own, that really did a number on my psyche for a while.
‘I was terrified my child might not have had a mom. I couldn’t lift my son and I had a hard time being a stay-at-home parent. That put a lot of stress on our family.’
At first, Conley was afraid that she had contributed to her strokes because she frequently cracked her own neck.
However, she claims the doctor said: ‘You could’ve had a stroke prior; it’s possible. But is it likely? No. Her velocity of the way she cracked your neck exacerbated it.’
Now Conley is warning others to avoid cracking their own necks or visiting a chiropractor.
Conley was six months postpartum from having her son and blamed her original headache on stress and late nights caring for him
Conley said: ‘[Chiropractors] are trained to look for and learn about strokes. They even make you sign a waiver that that is a risk but no one pays attention to it.
‘I signed a waiver not knowing what I was signing. That’s not education, that’s not fully informed consent.
‘I feel angry and disappointed. I just hope somebody learns what I didn’t learn prior to.
‘If you have a headache and you’re postpartum, go to the hospital. If there’s any part of this I can promote, it’s to be aware of what it is and the severity.’
Now, Conley said she has been left permanently disabled as she suffers with right-side weakness and speech difficulties and now warns people against visiting chiropractors.
She said she feels ‘angry and disappointed’ that the chiropractor allegedly didn’t alert her to the stroke and made a claim against the practitioner for negligence in 2022, which was settled.
