A Winnipeg woman is suing her chiropractor, claiming he injured her by tearing an artery during treatment and that she suffered a stroke as a result. The woman had been a patient at Maples Chiropractic in Winnipeg for some time, and she had previously indicated that she did not want the chiropractor treating or adjusting her neck. In May 2023, the patient suffered a right vertebral artery dissection as a result of treatment. “Due to this injury from the treatment, [the plaintiff] suffered a stroke,” says the statement of claim, filed late last month in Court of King’s Bench at Winnipeg.
Maples Chiropractic is claimed to have failed to give the patient immediate care to minimize the effects of her injury. The patient was admitted to hospital at the Health Sciences Centre. The allegations have not been tested in court and statements of defence have not yet been filed. The lawsuit names as defendants the chiropractor, Gilbert Miranda, and his company, Everybody Health Inc., which operates Maples Chiropractic. The lawyer for the plaintiff declined to comment on the case.
The claim states that the patient will need ongoing therapy, psychological treatment and medical attention. It seeks an unspecified amount in damages for the patient’s alleged pain and suffering, loss of income and loss of enjoyment of life. The chiropractor allegedly failed to warn the patient about the risks associated with the chiropractic treatment, “specifically failing to warn her that a stroke could occur from the treatment or from any injury caused by the treatment”. The claim states that the chiropractor was negligent for not obtaining informed consent from the plaintiff about the treatment in general, and specifically for the treatment that allegedly resulted in injury.
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Let me be clear: this case report – like so many similar ones – lacks important details and thus cannot be interpreted properly. Chiropractors will therefore claim – as they did so many times before – that the case does not amount to evidence. They will also pretend that chiropractic manipulations are safe and that there is no sound evidence to prove otherwise. They can make this claim because the chiropractic profession has – since ~120 years! – resisted adopting an adequate monitoring system for registering events like the one above.
And let me be clear again: such claims by chiropractors are based on self-interest and willful ignorance, polite expressions for ‘dishonesty’.
2 Responses to Another stroke following chiropractic neck manipulation
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Oh no! Not again! Why can’t this (mal)practice be stopped? Until they can be proved innocent?
It’s interesting how SCAM practitioners generally are extreme adherents of the precautionary principle when it comes to e.g. vaccines, antibiotics and other types of regular treatments with potential risks, i.e. that these treatments should not be administered unless proven absolutely safe (which of course is a nonsensical already).
But when it comes to this particular SCAM treatment, where there are in fact strong signs of harm far exceeding any benefits, then the precautionary principle is chucked out the window right away, with chiro’s continuing to yank necks for no good reason at all.