A Missouri man can consider himself lucky to be alive after he ruptured a neck artery and suffered three strokes because of turning his head too quickly during a game of pickleball.
Joel Hentrich, a 35-year-old “super-fit” man from Festus, Missouri suffered the freak accident in November of last year. He and some friends were playing a game of pickleball, a racket sport similar to tennis when he quickly turned his head to one side to track a ball. He felt and heard a strong pop in the back of his head, and immediately started experiencing symptoms that he had never felt before. Little did he know that that quick neck turn had set in motion a series of injuries that would leave him fighting for his life.
Moments after that violent neck pop, Joel experienced the worst vertigo in his life, and a couple of minutes later, he was being helped to the bench by his friends, because he couldn’t walk on his own.
