Did you know that you can dislocate your neck and become temporarily paralysed by just sneezing? Me neither, but that’s exactly what happened to 28-year-old Monique Jeffrey from Melbourne: she dislocated two vertebrae when she violently sneezed.
Monique was alone at home with her 10-month-old baby when the sneeze occurred. She said it was incredibly painful after she sneezed: “I just knew something was wrong. I felt something move and I was in excruciating pain.”
She was able to text her husband with a simple “Help can’t move pls call.” Emergency personel came to the rescue, taking her to Sandringham Hospital. Doctors told her she had a “wry neck” and asked her to do some exercises to move it again. But when her left arm went numb and started to tingle, the doctors immediately sent her to The Alfred hospital’s spinal trauma unit, where they discovered that her two top vertebrae were dislocated.
Fortunately, there was no damage in her spinal cord. According to her neurosurgeon — Dr Patrick Chan — “she’s very unlucky and it was a violent sneeze” but she will recover. [Herald Sun and 9RAW via Arbroath]