A mother who broke her neck when she sneezed five years ago has suffered the same injury, but this time from laughing.

Monique Jeffrey, from Melbourne, Australia, was lying in bed  in March 2012, when she suddenly sneezed, jolting her neck forward causing the vertebrae in her neck to collapse.

With her new born baby in the next room, Monique was barely able to move. She managed to send a text to Husband Sam saying, ‘help!’ who rushed home from work and called an ambulance.

Monique spent 14 weeks in a halo brace, a device which is drilled into the skull while the patient is awake and used to realign the vertebrae.

The hotel manager made a full recovery living with family, who take care of her and her son, Thomas.

However, bad luck struck in April when Monique broke her neck for a second time, in the exact same place.

Monique, now 33, said: ‘My neck was sore and I was at work.

‘I had a little stretch at my desk and felt a sharp pain but was still able to move around but I did text my husband to say I thought my neck was unstable.

‘About an hour later I was in the staff room with a colleague having a laugh at a joke and it happened again. My head got stuck to the right similar to the last time.

‘I knew exactly what I had done, the pain was really bad and work called an ambulance. I had a CT scan and an MRI to confirm it was the same two vertebrae.’

Doctors were left baffled by Monique’s injuries and told her they had never seen anything like this happen before.

Monique said: ‘Now that it has happened twice I am at a very high risk of it happening again but we are trying physio to strengthen the muscles around my neck and keep it stable.

‘If it happens again I will have high-risk surgery to fuse my neck.’

Monique is now recovering for a second time in the halo brace at home with husband Sam, 36, her son Thomas, now six, and daughter Macy, two.

She said: ‘Right now my life is so different. When it happened I was working 4 days a week and now I can’t work until I recover.

‘We have no family nearby so are flying in family every week to help with our two children so my husband can work.

‘No more laughing or sneezing! Long term I need to be careful all the time.’

Monique’s sister set up a GoFundMe page to help with mounting medical costs

Source:
courtesy of METRO

by Richard Hartley-Parkinson

If you have any stories or news that you would like to share with the global online community, please feel free to share it with us by contacting us directly at [email protected]