Chiropractor Tears Woman’s Artery While Cracking Her Neck

A woman says her chiropractor tore an artery in her neck during a routine adjustment, causing her to be bedridden in “constant pain.”

Carissa Klundt, 41, was regularly seeing a chiropractor after struggling with back pain following the removal of breast implants that she said had made her ill. 'My muscles got really tight. It was such a huge surgery, the muscles tightened, it was really painful,” Klundt said, according to The Daily Mail.

Her sessions with the chiropractor were helpful, she says, until a substitute stepped in during a November 2022 appointment and cracked her neck. “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,” Klundt explained. “'There was a pain in my neck. I got home and felt like I was going to throw up.”

A few weeks after the appointment, Klundt says “I was seeing things and blacking out.”

Her husband insisted she go to the emergency room, where a CAT scan diagnosed Klundt with a vertebral artery dissection, or VAD. It’s a tear in the artery that runs along your spine, and as the Cleveland Clinic explains, “It can affect blood flow, putting you at risk for life-threatening complications.”

'I knew straight away that it was from the chiropractor,” she says. “That's where the pain all started from.”

Klundt was promptly transferred to the ICU of another hospital, explaining, “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.”

The former fitness and wellness advocate struggled for the first month, explaining, “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 nearly three years later, her symptoms haven’t fully subsided; “I was healthy, active and deeply in tune with my body,” the former fitness and wellness advocate explains. “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,” she said. “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. It's not about blaming anyone, it's just about spreading more awareness,” she said. “I want people to understand what the symptoms are and that this is a life-threatening condition.”