PEOPLE – A 29-year-old woman died after she “felt a crack to her neck” and sought out medical attention from a chiropractor to treat her neck pain, per a Gateshead [UK] and South Tyneside Coroner prevention of future deaths report.
The coroner is now advising the General Chiropractic Council to implement new rules to prevent similar deaths.
Joanna Kowalczyk first suffered an arterial dissection after she injured her neck during a September 2021 personal training session.
(An arterial dissection “is a tear along the inside lining of an artery and can occur in [the] head, neck, or spine,” per Boston’s Children’s Hospital.)
On Oct. 19, 2021, Kowalczyk died “of the consequences of chiropractic treatment” combined with a stroke and her undiagnosed arterial dissection, assistant coroner Leila Benyounes reported on Jan. 22, 2025.
At the time of her death, “the ambulance service found that there was a failure in communications made by the paramedic crew on 10/17/21,” but Benyounes wrote that “this did not cause or contribute to the death.”
After she heard her neck crack, she visited the hospital accident and emergency department.
She was administered a CT scan, and medics advised she receive a lumbar puncture to eliminate the possibility of a hemorrhage. However, she declined, “self-discharged” from the hospital and opted for chiropractic therapy.
She informed the chiropractor that she received a CT scan during her hospital visit.
However, the unnamed chiropractor did not acquire her previous medical records before beginning her four-week treatment.
During a later session, on Oct. 16, 2021, she felt immediate symptoms of dizziness, vomiting, double vision, tingling in her right hand and foot, and struggles to speak …
