LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Playboy model Katie May died as a result of an injury caused by a chiropractor who manipulated her neck, according to Los Angeles Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter.
Just days before the 34-year-old died in early February, she posted on Twitter that she had a pinched nerve in her neck and was going to see a chiropractor.
Winter cited “neck manipulation by [a] chiropractor” as the cause of May’s injury that led to a certain type of deadly stroke. MORE
I had a similar injury when my neck got manipulated only it was a former Playboy model doing the manipulating.
Too bad. Read her wiki bio and she led an interesting life with a number of jobs as well as a company she started (lasted 4 years as near as I can tell). Raising a daughter as well.
Chiropractic is a funny thing with people. Some people swear by it and some call it a dangerous quack medical practice. I remember being in my early twenties and going to one after weeks of back pain. He did an adjustment and things felt better. For about three hours. Then the pain came back. To be fair the pain wasn’t any worse then before but it sure wasn’t any better. I then followed my GP’s advice and used Tylenol 3, hot soaks in the tub and hot compresses for about two weeks and the pain diminished and mobility increased over that time. My experience was neutral except it cost me around $30 for not a lot of anything. Having said all that my GP shares office space with a back cracker and there’s always people going through for their regular “adjustments” so what do I know.
I’m in the group that thinks it’s a quack medical practice. No way am I going to let someone manipulate my neck and “crack” my back.
It works for me.
I fell off a kneeboard doing about 50.
(Speed increases when you dig into the water to jump a wake and my friend was doing 25)
Hit the water nose first and came up with a headache.
A week later I went to the Chiro and he showed me the X-ray.
My neck was bent the wrong way but after a few adjustments it moved back to were it belonged.
Havent had a problem with it for 30 years.
Fuster – you are a riot! I’ve been going for 35 years and it helped stave off surgery for many years. You just have to find the right chiro who listens to your symptoms and doesn’t over adjust causing a spasm.
Chiros are the shitnizzle. Hook me up to the that spine-tingling TENS unit and I feel like freakin’ Gumby afterwards.
Whenever I think I need to go to the chiropractor, I just take a couple of Placebin® instead and I feel much better.
😉
I call BS. Unless an artery was actually torn which is hard to imagine there’s no way an adjustment would do that.
Disclaimer: I finished all the academics and half the internship to be a Chiropractor, only quit because talking to recent grads figured out there isn’t much money in it. Interestingly, at the time it took more hours of anatomy and physiology to become a Chiropractor than and MD.
Chiropractic is always my first choice for musculo-skeletal issues.
I first went to a chiropractor about 25 years ago. I slept wrong on a thick pillow, and day by day the neck pain became excruciating. My next-door neighbor worked for a chiropractor so I went there. It took 4-5 ‘neck crack’ visits but it fixed the problem.
I continued going to her, irregularly and as needed, for over 10 years. But my faith in her was diminishing as her service seemed less and less thorough. Final straw was when I went in with a lower back problem. She fixed it on the 3rd try, also adjusted my neck and we both recognized that the neck adjustment was off. Had I just gone back a few days later it probably would have been fine, but I didn’t so lived with a vertebra slightly out of whack for 3 years. I had certainly heard about stroke and other risks, and decided I just didn’t trust her anymore.
I finally decided I needed to do something about it, mentioned to a friend that I was looking for a chiropractor and he recommended his. But she is a very different type of chiropractor – directional non-force (see nonforce.com). Her fix for a vertebra out of whack is to simply push it back into place with a slight push, and no need for return visits. She has treated me for a plethora of skeletal/muscular problems and I recommend her often. When I got T-boned by an F150 3 years ago she was my second phone call out of the emergency room.
Why, oh WHY!?, didn’t somebody protect her from herself?
I have had both experiences.
But I also have been helped in both instances.
Once when I was hale and hearty I injured myself doing something in construction. What I did was pull both my Atlas and Axis (top two) in opposite directions. The symptoms: Pounding headache that floored me and hella Nausea. I had no Idea it was my neck. I went to the emergency room twice. No x ray, no nothing. Five days later a buddy saw me and looked at my neck and called the ambulance. That Chiropractor really earned his money. he said my brain stem was pinched and I was close to inner decapitation. He was Gentle. I have had the other nd and avoid those guys.
But my best experience was from a practitioner of Feldencrais. Its a chiropractic method invented by an Israeli from the 30’s
I herniated one of my discs and was in a LOT of pain. The doctors wanted to cut on me (skarew that) so I was given three treatments as a present.
Feldencrais is based on ‘guiding’ not forcing the skeleton back into place.
I left the first appointment convinced it was Hippie Bullshit
Same with the second treatment (I only went to be polite).
Five days after the third treatment I realized I did not hurt.
Blew my mind.
Actually my favorite is a vigorous massage, a steam, a plunge in the river, and a cigar with a good whiskey.
It’s time to revoke those Almost-A-Doctor licenses. They keep you coming back until they bleed your wallet dry. Like psychiatrists.
People have been healed from disease with spinal realignment.
I was seeing a chiropractor this year but quit going because they won’t do adjustments on me because of the surgeries I’ve had.
So it’s noni juice, inversion table, TENS unit, heat pad, and prayer at home. Works pretty good and costs very little.
I didn’t catch the name of this gal’s chiropractor?
Check out some of the testimonials on this page:
http://www.youtube.com/user/johnbchiro
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scroll down
I have personal knowledge – a sister-in-law who suffered a stroke after a neck adjustment. Her doctor said it is not that rare. She didn’t die, but was permanently disabled. I have gone to chiropractors for some issues, but will NEVER let them adjust my neck.
Legalized quackery. IMHO
This is not that uncommon. I’ve read about this happening many times over many decades. I know many people who can’t get through the week without a visit to their bone cracker, and I know people who consider chiropractors to be dangerous quacks. The history of the chropractic alternative medicine is quite interesting and seems to support its usefulness. But, you should NEVER let a chiropractor adjust your neck, because of the possibility of it causing debilitating strokes. To each his own.
My wife had frozen shoulder with pain and numbness in her arm. Nothing (PT, drugs, traction, steroids, etc.) helped until she tried chiro. Two adjustments made the numbness go away and two more unfroze the shoulder. She “gets back in trim” every other month. I like the chiro – he did help her, and he examined me and said I didn’t need it when he could’ve tried to flimflam me. The relief was worth the risk.
Apparently she had a problem already or she wouldn’t have had to see a chiropractor in the first place.