A Pennsylvania college student says she went in for a routine Swedish massage and ended up in the ER with a torn artery in her neck

A 23-year-old college student in Pennsylvania says a trip to the spa for a massage left her in the hospital with a serious neck injury. The student, who posted on Reddit, shared her story in the subreddit r/legaladvice under the title “Went in for a massage and now I’m in the hospital.” The post has since been deleted.

According to The Nerd Stash, she said she had gotten Swedish massages before, but this one wasn’t like the others. “This massage was completely different,” she reportedly wrote in her post. According to her account, the massage therapist used more force than she was used to and performed a neck-jerking move on her, a technique that has drawn attention online for being risky.

The OP reportedly said the massage felt “more aggressive than anything I’d had before.” She said she left the appointment sore, but expected the feeling to go away with time. Instead, she said her neck grew stiff, and she began getting migraines. When she started losing parts of her vision, she said she went to the emergency room.

The student says she had migraines and suffered vision loss afterward

She said doctors diagnosed her with a cervical artery dissection, which is a tear inside an artery in the neck. This type of injury can lead to a stroke. “Before this massage, I was healthy and had no neck problems,” she said in her post. 

As a college student, the OP said she does not have a way to pay for her medical bills. Because of this, she said she is looking into legal action against the spa. Other patients have also described how a single error during routine care can quickly turn into a life-threatening medical emergency.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, a tear in one of the arteries in the neck can block blood flow to the brain. The clinic states that this kind of tear is a leading cause of stroke among young and middle-aged adults. Under Pennsylvania law, specifically 49 Pa. Code § 20.41, licensed massage therapists are not allowed to perform chiropractic manipulation-adjustment or physical therapy mobilization-manual therapy. 

This rule defines what is and is not within a massage therapist’s approved scope of practice in the state. Not all massage-related stories involve injury, though, as one man’s search for relief famously led him to an unconventional emotional support instead.

Several people responded to the Reddit post with advice and reactions. One commenter wrote, “Contact a lawyer first. 100% contact a personal injury lawyer before talking to the massage place. They will tell you where to go from there. You don’t want to say the wrong thing accidentally to the employees there, I know that I get pretty forgiving preeeetty easily when uncomfortable or under pressure.”

Another commenter pointed out that adjustments fall outside what massage therapists are supposed to do. “Massage therapists should not do adjustments. It’s outside of their scope of practice. Sounds like they tried to give an Atlas/Orthogonal adjustment which should only be done by a licensed chiropractor or physical therapist for this very reason,” the comment read.

A third commenter raised a question about the therapist’s qualifications. “It would be worth checking to see if the massage therapist was even licensed to perform chiropractic maneuvers,” they wrote. Most commenters agreed that getting a lawyer involved should be one of the first steps before taking any further action regarding the spa or the medical bills.