Doctors said the act of popping his neck caused Josh Hader to tear his vertebral artery.
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"The moment I heard the pop, everything on my left side started to go numb," Hader said. "I got up and tried to get an ice pack from the fridge, and I remember I couldn't walk straight."
As bad as this all sounds, Hader's doctor said it could have been even worse.
"He could have formed more clot on that tear and had a life-ending stroke," Dr. Vance McCollom said. "He could have died."
Hader survived his stroke, but it did cause a lot of damage -- he had vision problems for a few days and still struggles to walk. Hader also had painful hiccups for a week-and-a-half.
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But Hader said the hardest part of the whole ordeal has been not being able to help his wife take care of their youngest son.
"I can't pick him up out of the crib, give him milk in the middle of the night," he said. "I can't do any of that."
According to McCollom, there is a right and wrong way to pop your neck.
"If you want to pop your neck, just kind of pop it side to side," McCollom said. "Don't twist it. Whenever you twist it, there's a risk of tearing that vessel."
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