28-Year-Old Man Stretches Neck, Hears ‘Pop,' Suffers Stroke

Josh Hader said a vascular specialist recently told him he was "extremely lucky" he didn't end up in a coma

A 28-year-old man in Oklahoma had a stroke after stretching his neck to alleviate some pain, leading to him being hospitalized for two weeks, he told NBC News

Josh Hader "heard a pop" on March 14 when he used his hand to help roll his neck, where he'd been having some pain for a few weeks. "Then everything on my left side started to go numb."

Soon, the father of two "was tripping over myself trying to walk straight," he said, and he could barely hold himself up when his father-in-law brought him into the emergency room at Mercy Hospital in Logan County.

Hader said he was told that the stroke was caused by stretching his neck, where a clot had formed due to a small tear in his vertebral artery. He didn't leave the hospital until March 29, but he said a vascular specialist recently told him he was "extremely lucky" he didn't end up in a coma.

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