Plaintiff claims upper neck adjustment left her a tetraplegic
Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP (FMC), filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of Alberta’s chiropractic patients and their estates on Thursday, June 12th. The class action lawsuit, filed in the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench, alleges that Alberta chiropractors put the lives and health of their patients at risk by subjecting them to inappropriate and non-beneficial adjustments of their spines and necks.
The lawsuit – Sandra Nette et al vs. Gregory John Stiles et al – was initiated by Sandra Nette and her husband David Nette of Edmonton. In September 2007, Sandra visited her chiropractor, Gregory Stiles, at his Edmonton clinic for chiropractic adjustments he had recommended to improve her health and wellness. The suit alleges that Gregory Stiles’ upper neck adjustments ruptured Sandra’s right and left vertebral arteries, disrupting the blood flow to her brain and causing a cascade of strokes. Less than an hour after Gregory Stiles’ upper neck adjustment Sandra was, and remains today, a tetraplegic.
"Albertans have a right to expect that the healthcare they pay for and receive is safe and effective," said Philip Tinkler, Esq., head of FMC’s Edmonton Class Actions Group. "This claim alleges that people are not being properly informed of their health conditions or of the benefits and risks of the manipulations chiropractors propose to do."
The lawsuit’s lead counsel is FMC partner and corporate litigator P. Daryl Wilson, Q.C. who says "Medical scientists tell us that there is no scientific basis to the chiropractic theory of subluxations affecting health and the need for routine neck manipulation. Two Canadian coroner’s inquiries have found as a fact that manipulating the upper neck has caused death. Sandra Nette has been rendered a tetraplegic by unnecessary, inappropriate and non-beneficial manipulation of the upper neck, and does not want this to happen to anyone else. We believe this class action lawsuit is important and in the public interest."
Named as defendants in the class action suit are:
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Gregory Stiles and The Spa at Life Stiles;
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the Alberta College and Association of Chiropractors for allegedly failing to properly regulate the use of spinal manipulations, particularly to the upper neck; and,
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the Alberta Ministry of Health which has ultimate responsibility for the health services offered to the public.
Members of the class whose rights will be represented include any person (or their estate if deceased) who received any chiropractic adjustment of the spine other than an adjustment to treat an existing diagnosis of acute or sub-acute uncomplicated low back pain in the last decade and suffered personal
injury as a result, and any person (or their estate if deceased) who paid for such chiropractic adjustments in Alberta in the last decade.
Information about the class action and its progress can be found at http://www.chiroclassaction.ca/
Click here for more facts on the case.
For more information, contact:
Alison Janzen
Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP
416-863-4455
alison.janzen@fmc-law.com
Daorcey Le Bray
National Public Relations
403-444-1482
dlebray@national.ca
Jenn Muir (Day of Contact)
Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP
780-423-7385/780-860-7541c
jenn.muir@fmc-law.com