A paramedic who regularly cracks her joints has been left partially paralysed.
Natalie Kunicki, who works for London Ambulance Service, was simply watching films in bed with her friend after a night out drinking when she stretched her neck.
After hearing a loud ‘crack’, the 23-year-old dismissed it as something normal and decided to go to sleep. However, just 15 minutes later, she woke up and realised she couldn’t move her left leg.
When Kunicki attempted to walk on it, she fell to the floor.
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In the early hours of 5 March, the young healthcare worker found herself being rushed to hospital in an ambulance and after a CT scan was ordered, it was confirmed she had suffered a stroke.
“I was in bed watching stuff with a friend when it happened,” Natalie explained.
“I stretched my neck and I could just hear this ‘crack, crack, crack’. My friend asked ‘was that your neck?’ but all my joints crack quite a bit so I didn’t think anything of it. I just laughed.”
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She added: “I fell asleep and when I woke up about 15 minutes later. I wanted to go to the bathroom but I could feel this leg in the bed and I was asking my friend if he could move his leg.
“He told me it was my leg but I was a bit tipsy so I wasn’t taking anything seriously and just thought ‘that’s a bit weird’.”
When the paramedics arrived, she says they had her do several coordination tests, and she kept failing them.
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As it turns out, the loud crack wasn’t normal at all - it was her vertebral artery bursting.
The vertebral artery is a major artery in the neck, and her cracking created a blood clot to form in her brain, triggering the stroke.
Her left side was almost completely paralysed by the stroke, leaving her ‘emotionless’ for days as she struggled to come to terms with her new life.
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Thankfully, with the aid of daily exercises, she was able to regain some movement in her leg, arm and hand so she could be discharged to her parents' home in Harrow, London on 28 March.
But she wants everyone to know how a stroke can impact anyone, of any age.
She said: "People need to know that even if you're young something this simple can cause a stroke. I wasn't even trying to crack my neck. I just moved and it happened. I'm a paramedic and I didn't ring 999 for 10 minutes because I thought it was too unlikely it would be a stroke when I should have known much better.”
She warned: "Every minute more of your brain cells are dying so don't ever discount a stroke just because someone is young.
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"And people need to be more mindful when doing any chiropractic exercises or strenuous gym weights.”
Saying there was a ‘one in a million chance of it happening’ to her when her neck cracked, the young woman called it ‘strange’ as she doesn’t smoke, doesn’t drink much, and she has no family history of strokes.
As for how she’s thinking about her future, she says she can’t wait to get back to her job.
She said: “I just love my job and I want to get back to it. I’m so used to being busy and now I feel like I’m climbing the walls a bit. I definitely want to get back to work as soon as I can.”
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help her with funds as she takes time off.
Britt Jones