Vertebral artery dissection at the chiropractor

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I had an OB patient today who stroked out on the chiropractor table a few years back. Suffers from migraines and went for a neck adjustment. Had mild symptoms that night with vision and dizziness or something and the Chiro told her she needed another adjustment. Goes back in the next day and he does it again and this time, immediate room spinning and bad vision. Well she ends up in the IR suite with an angioplasty due to a dissection and stroke. Patient tells him “Oh you have ****ed up now!”
Gave me chills listening to the story.
And the kicker… Chiro called Mom instead of 911. Lol
She’s fine now thankfully but of course he never told her of the risk and the next Chiro wouldn’t touch her neck and tried to make it look like it was not related to high velocity manipulation.
This is the second case I have directly seen or been involved in.
These Chiros will argue up and down that correlation is not causation yet we see so many of these.
SMH.
 
Happened to friends of ours 5-6 years ago. Chiropractor

Stroked out. Fortunately recovered fully. Young 36 yo mom of 2. The most dangerous patient.

I had to diagnosed myself after 2 misdiagnosed visits to ER over a 2 day period. They ordered head ct when it was the wrong test to order.

I had gone to an event with them at the hard rock the night before and she just looked wrong. She said the er said the head scan was negative that afternoon and discharged her

The next morning. She didn’t feel well. She went to er again. Again they ordered head Ct.

Finally I said give me the phone and I talked to the “provider”. Turns out to be np (I’m not gonna to get into np vs md here). The MD missed diagnosis at stand a lone ER she went to first.

Anyways. I said to order angio to look for vertebral artery. And she had bilateral dissection. Was in hospital for 4 days.

Still some balance problems. But recovered. Miss her Hawaii spring break trip. On blood thinner for a few months

I told her to sue the chiropractor cause they did it. But the big law firms Morgan and Morgan’s wouldn’t take her case. Guess why? Because she looked fully recovered. Lawyers like to see u disabled. It looks better to a jury or force a settlement quicker.

The smaller law firms also didn’t want the case. Too much hassle for them. They actually wanted to sue the ER docs for mis diagnosis and not the chiropractor. (Going after big pockets)

She has a small firm on case for 5 years. Going no where. She may end up settling for a tiny 80k. Lawyer takes almost half. It’s ridiculous. And that’s from hospital and ER practice. Not the chiropractor.
 
I have seen 3 of these related to chiropractors and two others related to other factors. It’s scary and I always tell patients to never let anyone manipulate your neck. It isn’t a safe practice.

The two that were unrelated to chiropractic manipulation were people I know personally. One was spontaneous and occurred at the gym. Person became very dizzy and collapsed, brought to ER and found to have a single side dissection. Made a full recovery. The second person I know woke up feeling off and went to the ER and it was initially missed and she was told she was just hung over. Turns out she was watching fireworks the evening before and looking up and abruptly turning her neck may have done it. She still has fairly severe residual symptoms (balance issues, tiredness and double vision).
 
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Saw an OB nurse who had the dissection and stroke from neck 'adjustment', was a really good nurse as far as L&D goes prior. Out for several months, tried to come back but it was evident there were cognitive issues and soon left nursing.
 
Theres no reason for hvla- muscle energy, stretching, ROM exercises - much less risk and same results
 
coffeebythelake said:
Chiropractors are quacks. Obviously everyone here knows that. The problem is that the public doesn't because chiropractors smooze up their patients and make them believe they are actually competent with science and evidence based medicine.
Click to expand...
Everyone and their mother “has a chiro”. They are loved and trusted by the public. And they are often the ‘gatekeepers’ for Pain docs, so pain docs often have to play nice (reminds of the co-management relationship that many ophthalmologists have with optometrists). It’s nauseating.
 
makemoney2024 said:
I had an OB patient today who stroked out on the chiropractor table a few years back. Suffers from migraines and went for a neck adjustment. Had mild symptoms that night with vision and dizziness or something and the Chiro told her she needed another adjustment. Goes back in the next day and he does it again and this time, immediate room spinning and bad vision. Well she ends up in the IR suite with an angioplasty due to a dissection and stroke. Patient tells him “Oh you have ****ed up now!”
Gave me chills listening to the story.
And the kicker… Chiro called Mom instead of 911. Lol
She’s fine now thankfully but of course he never told her of the risk and the next Chiro wouldn’t touch her neck and tried to make it look like it was not related to high velocity manipulation.
This is the second case I have directly seen or been involved in.
These Chiros will argue up and down that correlation is not causation yet we see so many of these.
SMH.
Click to expand...

I have OB patients routinely ask about chiropractic care during pregnancy. Tell them the same thing:

Chiropractors are fake and there is real risk with their BS.

I send them to physical therapy instead
 
Lecithin5 said:
Everyone and their mother “has a chiro”. They are loved and trusted by the public. And they are often the ‘gatekeepers’ for Pain docs, so pain docs often have to play nice (reminds of the co-management relationship that many ophthalmologists have with optometrists). It’s nauseating.
Click to expand...

When they spend half their "education" on marketing and public perception it's no surprise. They lobby hard and they are very public facing in their PR campaign.
 
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Lecithin5 said:
Everyone and their mother “has a chiro”. They are loved and trusted by the public. And they are often the ‘gatekeepers’ for Pain docs, so pain docs often have to play nice (reminds of the co-management relationship that many ophthalmologists have with optometrists). It’s nauseating.
Click to expand...
Except optometrists aren't quacks... They are well-trained in their role.
 
I saw a few in residency because of their vision changes. Luckily it’s not super common since people continue to go to them and probably will more than ever now that so many want alternative quackery. Not a great study, but young Canadians with vertebral artery issues were 5x more likely to have had an adjustment within the prior week:

Canadian Study

I doubt you folks want a Dickens novel on my thoughts about co-management’s stupidity, so I’ll leave that one alone for now.
 
This whole "chiropractice" thing is very silly and only exists in this country because we allow snake oil salesmen to claim healing powers.
There is no such thing as chiropractice anywhere else in the world and that is for a good reason.
I guess this is unfortunately a result of accepting "osteopathic medicine" as an actual medical field!
Who on earth today thinks that manipulating bones heals illnesses?
I know this is not going to be well perceived by our Osteopathic friends, but common, we need to stop this bs!
 
Planktonmd said:
This whole "chiropractice" thing is very silly and only exists in this country because we allow snake oil salesmen to claim healing powers.
There is no such thing as chiropractice anywhere else in the world and that is for a good reason.
I guess this is unfortunately a result of accepting "osteopathic medicine" as an actual medical field!
Who on earth today thinks that manipulating bones heals illnesses?
I know this is not going to be well perceived by our Osteopathic friends, but common, we need to stop this bs!
Click to expand...

Hey! Nice to see you.

It's well received by this DO, and likely most of them because so few practice manipulation.
 
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