Hickey Paralyzes Woman

The next time you find yourself getting intimate, be sure to cover your neck -- a hickey might be more dangerous than you thought.

That's right, a woman in New Zealand suffered a small stroke that partially paralyzed her after receiving a hickey -- or as the Kiwis call it, a "love bite" -- from her eager bedfellow, reported New Zealand Medical Journal.

At first, doctors struggled to find the cause of the stroke, until they discovered a small "bruise" on the woman's neck -- located very close to a major artery.

The force of the hickey-giver's suction had caused a blood clot in the artery, which then travelled to the woman's heart, doctors told the The Press. The woman made a full recovery.

Comments

[Melissa Eisenhart]

03:58 PM on 01/25/2011

It is not possible to have a stroke in your heart. The blood clot had to have traveled to her brain for a stroke. Either the doctors where wrong and have no idea what they were talking about, or your reporter got the information wrong.

[ethiopia1a]

12:40 PM on 01/25/2011

love bites

[Max Shaw]

11:39 AM on 01/24/2011

Me thinks this will be on an episode of HOUSE...

[neinitsmine]

01:54 PM on 01/24/2011

Brilliant.

[ethiopia1a]

12:39 PM on 01/25/2011

lol

[RiceStarz]

08:43 AM on 01/24/2011

That sucks.

[EastTraveler]

01:56 PM on 01/24/2011

No pun intended!

[anastasiabeaverhousen]

05:18 PM on 01/23/2011

I just never really understood the point of a hickey. Aren't there oh so many other funner "things" to which one could apply suction on the human body?!?!?!?!

[WheelsOnFire]

05:22 PM on 01/23/2011

Of course!

But...a hickey could either be a form of foreplay...or an act of marking someone as their own.

[anastasiabeaverhousen]

05:29 PM on 01/23/2011

You can peee in their yard if you want to mark your territory......just my opinion....

>;-}

[novabird]

10:39 AM on 01/23/2011

Urban myth?

[IMOPINIONH8D]

08:33 AM on 01/23/2011

The kiss of death?

[Max Shaw]

11:39 AM on 01/24/2011

Dont tell Jet Li. He's already powerful enough.

[bumplin]

07:38 AM on 01/23/2011

the New Zealand Hickey Paralyzer is on the loose...

[Angela Lipscomb]

01:28 PM on 01/24/2011

Hide your wife, hide your kids, hide your husbands!

[DrImranKhan]

12:38 AM on 01/23/2011

Very dangerous the man may have put enough force to bite down and clamp the carotid artery, causing bleeding and leading to a stroke. Gentle kissing is the way to go and do not try to kill your partner.
This is a legal case

[ConfuciusSay-]

12:25 AM on 01/24/2011

You've never had a hickey, have you?

[Max Shaw]

11:39 AM on 01/24/2011

hahaha..probably not.

[purenergy]

03:55 PM on 01/22/2011

right. Sounds super scientific to me.

[cargofuzz]

11:48 AM on 01/22/2011

Oh my goodness. That sucks. (No pun intended.)

I'm happy she made a full recovery.

[Alskling]

12:07 PM on 01/22/2011

Are you sure that wasn't a little bit intended?

[cargofuzz]

12:47 PM on 01/22/2011

Maybe a little...

[Neal Norvell]

10:21 AM on 01/22/2011

Pretty frigid woman.

[ManuOB1]

10:08 AM on 01/22/2011

Was this story picked from the National Enquirer?

[wackette]

09:44 AM on 01/22/2011

So... no sucking on old folks?

[senseandnonsense]

02:37 PM on 01/22/2011

So it's hickeys, not vampires, that cause the undead?

[euthman]

09:44 AM on 01/22/2011

Nonsense. A blood clot in an artery does not travel to the heart; it travels away from the heart. Beyond that, the whole hypothesis is pretty weak and probably a post hoc fallacy. Both strokes and hickeys are common events. If both happen to the same individual, it is not necessarily cause-and-effect. It may just be coincidence. As a pathologist, I am very familiar with how thick and tough the wall of the carotid artery is. I find it difficult to believe that oral suction could significantly deform the artery to affect the blood flow and induce clot formation.

[Alskling]

12:09 PM on 01/22/2011

Big thumbs up for that, euthman.

[TucsonEd]

12:37 PM on 01/22/2011

I did NOT know that. ( a blood clot travels away from the heart)
thanks for the information.

[doctor-ruth]

12:50 PM on 01/22/2011

It's not that blood clots travel away from the heart ... it's that arteries do. If the clot is in an artery, it would travel away from the heart.