Man suffers stroke after stretching his neck

After reading his story, you might want to think twice before you get down to some neck-cracking.

An 28-year-old man wanted to relieve the tension in his neck, instead he landed in hospital after suffering a stroke and torn artery.

According to NBC News, Josh Hader was working from home on 14 March when he rolled his neck to the right to relieve pain he’d experienced for several weeks.

“I used my hand to apply a bit more pressure... and then I heard a pop sound,” the father-of-two told NBC News. “Then everything on my left side started to go numb.”

His first thought was that it could be a stroke, but since his face wasn’t drooping on one side – a common sign of a stroke – he was relieved.

However, when he walked to the fridge to get an ice pack he lost his balance, People writes.

“I was tripping over myself trying to walk straight,” Josh, who’s from Guthrie in Oklahoma, said. “It was actually impressive that I couldn’t walk straight whatsoever.”

His father-in-law rushed him to hospital, where a CT scan showed he’d suffered a stroke caused by a blood clot.

“I remember hearing a doctor at the ER yelling out to staff, ‘We have 12 minutes to administer this.’

“That’s when everything kind of landed home.”

Later Josh was transferred to Oklahoma City’s Mercy Hospital, where he was told he’d suffered an ischemic stroke, which occurs when the arteries to the brain become narrowed or blocked, causing severely reduced blood flow.

The former police officer’s clot was caused by a small tear in a vertebral artery. Doctors told him the direct cause of the stroke was because he’d stretched his neck.

They said they saw about three or four cases of ischemic stroke a year, but mostly after car accidents or other impacts.

“I was the only self-manipulation case they’d ever seen,” Josh said. “Great way to break a record!”

^{Sources: People, NBC News, Popsugar.com}

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