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One morning, in 2011, Monique Jeffrey, of Rose Bay, Australia, was at home, in her bed, checking her emails. She sneezed and her head suddenly jolted forward, collapsing the\u00a0C1 and C2 vertebrae in her neck.<\/p>\n
She had broken her neck in what experts called a \u201cfreak accident\u201d, but the chances of something like this happening twice to the same person were apparently \u201cslim to none\u201d.<\/p>\n
And yet, last month, Monique suffered the same ordeal, this time while laughing with some colleagues at work.<\/p>\n
\u201cI texted Sam (her husband) just saying \u2018help!\u2019 and he called me and I answered on speaker phone, because I couldn\u2019t put the phone to my ear,\u201d Monique recalls about the bizarre accident she suffered over five years ago. \u201cHe came home and called an ambulance. It was pretty scary and it was such a strange sensation. I was in so much pain after just one little sneeze.\u201d<\/p>\n
She had to be placed in a neck traction, an uncomfortable device that immobilizes the neck muscles and allows them to heal, for 14 weeks, and made a full recovery.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/monique-jeffrey2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
She was back to her old self again, and everything was great up until three week again, when the unthinkable happened again.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was at work and I had a bit of a stiff neck. Nothing awful, it was just a little bit sore,\u201d Jeffrey\u00a0told News.com.au. \u201cI was actually joking around with some colleagues because they were making some inappropriate jokes about how I may have hurt my neck, and I threw my head back and did it again.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Australian mother-of-two says that this second accident didn\u2019t feel as bad as the first, but it did leave her unable to move her head again, and the injury was apparently bad enough that doctors had to use\u00a0a neck halo on her. This is a metal device that screws into the patient\u2019s skull and stops them from moving their head.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/monique-jeffrey3.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had two kids and getting the halo is worse than childbirth,\u201d Monique said. \u201cI can lie down but I sleep sitting up in a special bed. The halo completely supports my head and my neck. All the muscles in my neck are wasting away but I don\u2019t have to hold my head up because it\u2019s being held up by the bars and screws.\u201d<\/p>\n
She will have to wear the neck halo for six weeks, after which she will undergo months of physiotherapy and rehab to strengthen her neck muscle, but because she has already suffered this type of extremely unlikely accident twice in five years, the chances of it happening again is really high.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/monique-jeffrey4.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
So if the therapy proves unsuccessful, doctors may have to perform surgery to \u201cfuse\u201d her\u00a0C1 and C2 vertebrae, so they can no longer collapse.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not terminal, I\u2019m going to be fine, but it does suck a bit. You just have to laugh about it,\u201d an optimistic Monique said.<\/p>\n
Monique and her husband Sam both work full time to support their two children, and her having to be hospitalized for months is going to be tough on the family, financially. Her sister set up a\u00a0crowdfunding campaign on GoFundMe, where people willing to help them get through this ordeal can donate. The $8,000 goal has already been met, but if you\u2019d like to make a contribution, it would definitely be appreciated.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One morning, in 2011, Monique Jeffrey, of Rose Bay, Australia, was at home, in her bed, checking her emails. She sneezed and her head suddenly jolted forward, collapsing the\u00a0C1 and C2 vertebrae in her neck. She had broken her neck in what experts called a \u201cfreak accident\u201d, but the chances of something like this happening […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-392933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-business"],"yoast_head":"\n
Woman who broke her neck sneezing, does it again while laughing - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/05\/29\/woman-who-broke-her-neck-sneezing-does-it-again-while-laughing\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Woman who broke her neck sneezing, does it again while laughing - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"One morning, in 2011, Monique Jeffrey, of Rose Bay, Australia, was at home, in her bed, checking her emails. She sneezed and her head suddenly jolted forward, collapsing the\u00a0C1 and C2 vertebrae in her neck. 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