A Las Vegas woman nearly died after an adjustment from a chiropractor went COMPLETELY wrong — and now she’s warning the world about what happened.
Carissa Klundt is a 41-year-old mom of three who lives in Sin City. Back in November 2022, she sought out the services of a chiropractor to address persistent back pain she’d been struggling with for nearly half a decade. See, she’d had breast implants removed four years before, and the result of that surgery was endless back aches. She got sick of it, and she went to a chiropractor for help. But during the fourth appointment, it all went HORRIBLY wrong.
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According to Klundt, who spoke to DailyMail.com on Sunday about her experience, she went to three no-problem meetings with a Vegas-based chiropractor at the end of 2022. She even found the sessions helpful in addressing her back pain! But during the fourth session, an assistant stepped in to crack her neck — and things immediately took a turn.
Reflecting on the neck-cracking moment that completely changed her life, Klundt said she knew something was wrong the instant it happened:
“As soon as it happened, I knew something was wrong. You do hear a crack anyway when you get an adjustment but I knew something had gone wrong. There was a pain in my neck. I got home and felt like I was going to throw up.”
The pain didn’t subside, either. For hours, Carissa felt awful, and a sharp pain ached all across her neck. She tried to brush it off as a strained muscle, she told the outlet. And for days, she did just that… even though it didn’t get any better.
But thankfully, her husband Cassidy eventually encouraged her to go to the hospital. Oh, and other stuff might have encouraged her to see medical attention, too — because Carissa noted she was “seeing things and blacking out” for DAYS on end!
WTF!
Finally at the emergency room, Klundt underwent a CAT scan. Doctors used it to diagnose her with something called vertebral artery dissection, or VAD. Basically, according to the Cleveland Clinic, that’s a tear (dissection) in the artery that runs along the spine. Tearing that artery is potentially a MAJOR problem, too. The Cleveland Clinic matter-of-factly notes:
“It can affect blood flow, putting you at risk for life-threatening complications.”
Um, life-threatening complications??? From a chiropractic visit?!?! Yuuup.
Per that source, it’s a very unlikely injury. The clinic estimates only about one in 100,000 people experience a VAD injury each year. However, they also warn that undergoing chiropractic neck manipulation significantly raises that risk, which is SO scary!
As for Carissa, as soon as she was officially diagnosed, she knew the nearly-fatal neck issue had been caused by the experience at the chiropractor’s office:
“I knew straight away that it was from the chiropractor. That’s where the pain all started from.”
ER docs rushed her into the intensive care unit of a nearby hospital that was even better equipped to handle her touch-and-go condition. She explained:
“They said I could’ve had a stroke. If I hadn’t gone to [the] hospital, I would’ve had a stroke. I could’ve so easily died. It traumatized my whole family.”
So scary…
For the first month after she began receiving treatment for the deadly dissection, she was laid up in bed. Carissa remembered how tough those days were:
“I was pretty much in bed. I was exhausted, sleeping for 17 hours a day. I needed help walking. I was in constant pain.”
And now nearly three years later, the injury has completely altered her life — even though she continues improving all the time.
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Carissa explained it all:
“It’s a whole lifestyle change. I’ll never ski again, I’ll never go on a rollercoaster. I’m not teaching [fitness] classes anymore. There’s still a residual fear of it happening again. I’m doing well now but it’s been a long recovery process. My life was really put on pause. I absolutely regret going to the chiropractor.”
Amazingly, she doesn’t even blame the chiropractor’s office for the initial incident!!! She concluded:
“It’s not about blaming anyone, it’s just about spreading more awareness. I want people to understand what the symptoms are and that this is a life-threatening condition.”
What a scary, scary situation. More than anything else, we’re just glad that she’s OK now.
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[Image via Magnolia Pictures/YouTube]
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