Conn. chiropractic board to consider stroke risk

Published: 2010-01-05 03:31:16
Author: SUSAN HAIGH | Nashua Telegraph | January 3, 2010

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — It took 16 years of living with a feeding tube, but Brittmarie Harwe finally got to taste the meal she had been yearning for: baked cod.

That dinner last spring marked a personal milestone, the first solid food the Connecticut mother had eaten since suffering a stroke at age 26 after a visit to a chiropractor for a sore neck and shoulder.

This week, 43-year-old Harwe plans to experience another landmark moment in her life when the Connecticut State Board of Chiropractic Examiners takes up the contentious question of whether patients should be warned about a possible risk of stroke from neck manipulation by a chiropractor.

“We’ve finally gotten to this point. It’s taken so long, which is amazing to me,” said Harwe, who helped create the Connecticut-based Chiropractic Stroke Awareness Group, working with other stroke victims who contend their strokes were caused by chiropractic manipulations.

“If the people have a chance, given the information, they can avoid death or years of disability. It’s that simple,” said Harwe, who has been urging the General Assembly for the past several years to pass legislation to make patients aware of the possible risks.

Chiropractors have successfully fought back such legislative efforts, claiming their profession has been unfairly singled out and discounting the alleged link between stroke and neck manipulation. Some are expected to testify at this week’s two-day hearing against requiring chiropractors to automatically inform patients about a stroke risk from joint mobilization, manipulation or adjustment of the spine.

“Limiting informed consent to one profession, one procedure, does not leave (patients) fully informed,” said Matthew N. Pagano, a Winsted chiropractor and spokesman for the Connecticut Chiropractic Association, one of two trade associations in the state. “We believe that true informed consent happens best in the form of a discussion between a doctor and a patient.”

Pagano, who said he regularly discusses potential risks and benefits of chiropractic treatments with his patients, maintains that recent research does not support the claim that chiropractic adjustment causes stroke — an argument that patient advocates reject.

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