A FATHER suffered a stroke that paralysed the left side of his body after he ripped an artery in his neck while stretching.
Josh Hader, 28, from Guthtrie, Oklahoma, tore his vertebral artery – a vessel which supplies blood to the brain – during the horrifying accident earlier this year.
Following the stroke, he suffered from blurred vision and was forced to use a walker for several days.
The married dad-of-two, who still struggles to use his left leg, also suffered from severe hiccups for an entire week which were so painful he nearly had a panic attack.
Speaking with KOCO, Josh, who wore an eye patch to help his blurry vision, described the moment his neck popped.
He said: “The moment I heard the pop, everything on my left side started to go numb.
“I got up and tried to get an ice pack from the fridge, and I remember I couldn’t walk straight.”
Dr Vance McCollum, one of the medics who treated Josh, said he could have died or been left “locked inside” his own body.
He said: “If you have a stroke in that area, you can end up with a patient who’s locked in.
“They completely understand what’s going on, but they can’t communicate.
“They can’t move anything. They can’t speak. They can’t breathe.”
Josh is still being treated with drugs and regular physical therapies sessions.
He admits that his partial paralysis means he cannot help his wife with his two children – especially his youngest.
The dad said: “I can’t pick him up out of the crib, give him milk in the middle of the night. I can’t do any of that.”
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