Profile Testimony Of Michael McCormick, Intervener October 23, 2009

Prepared for Connecticut State Board of Chiropractic Examiners Public Hearing

January 5-6, 2010

Issue: Whether to require chiropractors to warn patients about a possible risk of stroke from neck manipulation

My name is Michael McCormick and this is my testimony to the State Board of Chiropractic Examiners in support of a declaratory ruling on Informed Consent and the Discharge Summary. On July 16, 2006, my wife Kim died of a stroke as a result of a chiropractic neck adjustment. She was just 32 years old. Our three children, Sean, Kyle and Abigail, were between the ages of seven months and five years old when their mother died. My testimony is on behalf of myself, my wife Kim. and our three children to urge you to require that when a chiropractor performs a Joint mobilization, manipulation, or an adjustment of the cervical spine, he or she obtains Informed Consent from a patient and offers a Discharge Summary prior to the procedure, recognizing the risk and/or possibility of the occurrence of a stroke or cervical artery dissection as a side effect. Such a requirement will help to ensure that patients are properly advised of the risks of this type of procedure, including the risks of chiropractic stroke and death.

My wife Kim had been suffering from headaches in July of 2006, which her primary care physician diagnosed as tension headaches caused by stress. This made sense to us as Kim had recently decided to leave work after the birth of our third child to care for the kids full time. She consulted with a chiropractor and was considering a cervical spine manipulation. I was with Kim as the chiropractor explained to her the benefits of the procedure and how it could help with her headaches. Not once did the chiropractor mention that the procedure carried with it a risk of stroke or possibly death. I can assure you that had my wife known there was even a remote possibility that she could die from the procedure, leaving her children without a mother, she never would have taken that risk

I was also with Kim on the evening of July 15, 2006 when she suffered her stroke. It was less than an hour after the chiropractic adjustment. I found her in a chair in the kitchen with her head resting on the table and a cold compress on her neck. She told me she felt nausea and that she was going to be sick. I helped her walk to the bathroom, but all she could do was dry heave. Within minutes she was unconscious. By six o’clock the following morning, I was told that my wife was legally brain dead due to the lack of oxygen to her brain. An autopsy determined that the cause of death was a stroke resulting from the dissection of both of her vertebral arteries during the cervical spine manipulation.

You will likely hear testimony that cervical spine manipulations are sate and that chiropractic stroke is a rare consequence. I have heard chiropractors claim that it never happens or that it happens maybe once in millions of adjustments. I do not know what the statistics are exactly. but I do know that if that one person was your wife, your mother, your child, your sister, or your friend, those statistics would provide little comfort. How many times does this have to happen. how many fives need to be altered, disrupted, or in my family’s case, changed forever before something is done?

Additional Testimonies:

• Testimony of Janet Levy
• Testimony of Christa Heck
• Testimony of Susan Hoffman