What started as a simple headache for a California mom turned into a terrifying medical nightmare that left her permanently disabled after a chiropractic neck adjustment reportedly caused multiple strokes.
Jaycie Conley, of Ventura, California, was just 33 years old in December 2021 when she began dealing with severe headaches while caring for her 6-month-old son. At first, she assumed the pain came from stress, exhaustion, or sleeping in an awkward position.
“I remember thinking I slept wrong, like I kinked my neck or something,” Conley recalled in an interview with Kennedy News and Media.
As the pain worsened over several days, she decided to visit a chiropractor she had previously worked with. But just hours after receiving a neck adjustment, Conley said something suddenly felt very wrong.
She became nauseous, and her eyes reportedly began crossing on their own.
Alarmed, she texted the chiropractor about the symptoms and was encouraged to return for another adjustment.
“The chiropractor said, ‘I’d rather see you than not,’” Conley said, explaining why she went back a second time.
According to Conley, the chiropractor suggested she may have simply been experiencing a “weird reaction” and told her to see a doctor only if the symptoms continued.
“She never said it was urgent so I didn’t know any better,” Conley explained. “It was alarming the way she wasn’t alarmed.”
As her symptoms refused to improve, the stay-at-home mom eventually rushed to the hospital, where doctors discovered she had suffered a bilateral vertebral artery dissection, also known as VAD — a dangerous tear in the arteries running along the spine that supply blood to the brain.
The condition can be life-threatening and may trigger strokes.
Doctors determined Conley had already suffered two mini-strokes, known as transient ischemic attacks (TIAs), before she even arrived at the hospital. Once admitted, she suffered a third and far more severe stroke that landed her in the ICU for five days.
Conley said doctors later told her the injury was likely caused by the “velocity” of the chiropractic neck manipulation.
“I was completely shocked that going to a chiropractor had contributed to this,” she said. “I thought, ‘I’m 33, how could this happen?’”
The devastating ordeal changed her life forever.
Conley says she was temporarily unable to walk, use her hands, or even go to the bathroom on her own while recovering in intensive care.
“To be 33 and basically be an elderly person in the ICU… that really did a number on my psyche,” she admitted.
She also feared she might never be able to care for her baby son again.
“I was terrified my child might not have had a mom,” she said. “I couldn’t lift my son and I had a hard time being a stay-at-home parent. That put a lot of stress on our family.”
Now 38, Conley still suffers from permanent disabilities, including weakness on the right side of her body and speech difficulties.
She says she’s frustrated that she never fully understood the risks associated with chiropractic neck adjustments before signing consent forms.
“[Chiropractors] are trained to look for and learn about strokes,” she said. “They even make you sign a waiver that that is a risk but no one pays attention to it.”
“I signed a waiver not knowing what I was signing. That’s not education, that’s not fully informed consent.”
Conley is now speaking publicly in hopes of warning others to take severe headaches and unusual symptoms seriously — especially postpartum mothers.
“If you have a headache and you’re postpartum, go to the hospital,” she urged. “I just hope somebody learns what I didn’t learn prior to.”
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