Woman has a stroke after cracking her neck, thinks she’s just drunk
Natalie Kunicki, 23, was in bed after a night out and stretched her neck. She heard a loud crack and then she couldn’t move her left leg.
Author: Tim Chong
Published: 6:34 PM EDT April 16, 2019
Updated: 8:20 AM EDT April 17, 2019
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A paramedic had a stroke when she cracked her neck, but she mistook the symptoms as being drunk, according to a British newspaper.
The Daily Mail says Natalie Kunicki, 23, was in bed after a night out and stretched her neck. She heard a loud crack, but didn’t think anything was wrong.
‘I wasn’t even trying to crack my neck. I just moved and it happened. I stretched my neck and I could just hear this ‘crack, crack, crack’,” she told the newspaper.
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When she tried to get up minutes later, however, she fell to the floor and couldn’t move her left leg.
She was taken to a hospital, where she was told her vertebral artery had burst, and a blood clot had formed in her brain.
Doctors are not sure she will fully recover.
“People need to know that even if you’re young something this simple can cause a stroke,” Kunicki said.
Dr. Tien Le, a neurosurgeon in Tampa, said it is rare for someone to have a stroke at 23, or from cracking their neck.
“It’s a freak occurrence,” he said.
He said it’s possible Kunicki had another condition that contributed to her stroke.
“Cracking your neck is not necessarily dangerous,” he said, but he warned there’s a risk if there are other conditions, such as a herniated disc, or if it’s done regularly.
He said cracking your neck, like cracking your knuckles, feels good because it relieves pressure and releases endorphins, a hormone in the brain associated with feeling good.
Done the wrong way, though, it can lead to symptoms like lightheadedness or tingling in the arms, Le said.
