A 23-year-old paramedic has been left partially paralyzed after a routine habit of cracking her neck resulted in a serious stroke.
Natalie Kunicki, who works with the London Ambulance Service, is now speaking out to raise awareness about the unexpected dangers of joint manipulation—even for young, healthy individuals.
Originally from Canberra, Australia, Kunicki had recently moved to London for her career. One evening after a night out, she was relaxing in bed watching movies with a friend when she casually stretched her neck. A loud cracking sound followed, but Kunicki thought little of it at the time.
Just 15 minutes later, she woke up and tried to get up—only to discover she couldn’t move her left leg. As she attempted to walk to the bathroom, she collapsed.
After being rushed to hospital and undergoing a CT scan, doctors revealed the shocking diagnosis: she had suffered a stroke. The neck stretch had caused a tear in her vertebral artery, one of the major arteries in the neck. This led to a clot forming in her brain, cutting off blood flow and triggering the stroke.
Kunicki said she was stunned by the news. “It took days for it to fully sink in. I didn’t talk much, didn’t laugh. I was completely numb,” she said.
She emphasized that strokes don’t only affect older people. “Even if you’re young, something as simple as this can have devastating effects,” she warned. “People need to be more cautious when doing anything that puts stress on the neck, including certain exercises or chiropractic adjustments.”
Kunicki recounted the events of that night in vivid detail. “I heard the cracking, but all my joints crack a lot, so I wasn’t alarmed. I laughed it off and went to sleep,” she said.
Minutes later, she realized something was wrong. “I could feel a leg on the bed and asked my friend to move his. He told me it was my leg. I was a little tipsy and just thought it was odd,” she explained.
When she stood up, her left leg wouldn’t move. She fell and her friend had to help her up. At first, he assumed she had too much to drink, but Kunicki sensed something far more serious. “I even thought I might have been drugged,” she said.
At first, she hesitated to call emergency services—worried that colleagues she knew would show up and find her in that state. “I tried to sleep it off, but eventually I put that aside and called 999,” she said. “Thankfully, it wasn’t anyone I knew.”
Though she doesn’t smoke, rarely drinks, and has no family history of strokes, Kunicki’s experience shows that risk factors don’t always follow patterns.
Following emergency surgery to insert a stent in her artery, doctors were able to repair the tear—but the clot in her brain couldn’t be removed and must dissolve naturally. Recovery hasn’t been easy. At first, she couldn’t move her arm or feel parts of her left side.
“At one point, I told my consultant, ‘You should have killed me.’ I was overwhelmed. Depression after a stroke is real—you lose your independence, even your dignity,” she said. “I needed help just to shower. At 23, it felt surreal.”
Support from friends and fellow medics played a key role in her recovery. “They gave me a week to feel sorry for myself—then told me to get to work. They helped with my exercises and kept me motivated.”
Kunicki’s story has taken on a new purpose. She now wants to highlight how strokes can and do affect young people, especially from causes like arterial dissection during physical activity.
“I’ve been to many stroke cases in older people, but never a young person like me,” she said. “Now I know—ruptured arteries are a common cause of strokes in young adults. It often happens in the gym or during intense movement.”
She credits her own medical training for helping the responding crew take her seriously. “If I hadn’t known something was wrong and spoken up, they might’ve assumed I was just drunk.”
According to the CDC, about 1 in 7 strokes occur in people aged 15 to 49. While strokes are more common in older adults, anyone—regardless of age—can be at risk.
Kunicki hopes her experience encourages others to listen to their bodies, advocate for themselves, and avoid brushing off serious symptoms—no matter how young or healthy they may seem.
