Paramedic staff stated that she was paralyzed after fracturing her neck while stretching

(CBS) – A 23-year-old paramedic was partially paralyzed after stretching his neck and breaking a major artery, she said.

Natalie Kunicki is working for an ambulance service in London and will stay in physical rehabilitation for a year, she said. She was watching television in bed after a night out with friends when she stretched her neck and heard a crackle, she said.

When she got up 15 minutes later to go to the bathroom, she collapsed and could not move her left leg anymore.

She called paramedics and was rushed to the hospital, where she learned that a large artery on her neck had been severed, sending her a blood clot in the brain, which caused a stroke. cerebral.

She was stunned, she said.

"The doctors told me later that stretching my neck had caused the rupture of my spinal artery," she said. "It was spontaneous, and there is a one in a million chance of this happening."

Dr. Michelle Collie, a physiotherapy expert in Rhode Island, said she had never heard of such a strange accident. "Usually, an exceptional trauma is involved" when breaking a neck artery, she told InsideEdition.com.

But injuries to the neck and spine can be very debilitating, and she urged people to pay attention to how they sit and stretch.

When you stretch your neck, be sure to turn left and right and up and down, she said. Do not rotate your neck in a circle and do not make jerky movements.

Generally, cracking for one's own neck is acceptable, but do not let anyone, except qualified professionals, handle your neck or spine.

She also advised to avoid long periods of sitting or subsidence. "Do not move has very detrimental effects," she said. Do not forget to keep your chin flat on the floor and imagine a piece of string pulled from the top of your head, lifting your spine in alignment.

Kunicki said that she had found a feeling on her left side but that she had several hours of therapy in front of her. Doctors monitor the clot in his brain, hoping it will dissolve over time. They repaired his damaged artery with a stent.

"I am determined to return to work," she said.

Kunicki has the advantage of being young in his favor, said Collie.

"I would not be surprised if in a few months she could be back where she was before," said Collie.