A California woman is suing a hair salon for allegedly causing her to suffer a “beauty parlor stroke” shortly after her visit.
Elizabeth Smith, now 48, told KGTV that she made an appointment to get her hair done at the Blowbunny: Blow Dry & Hair Extension Bar in December 2013.
It was during that very visit, Smith alleges, that her neck was “hyper-extended” while the stylist was shampooing her hair.
Two weeks later, Smith suffered a serious stroke that she believes was caused by the “defective” shampoo bowl and chair.
According to court documents filed by Smith’s attorney in December, the hyper-extension in her neck caused the victim’s vertebrate to "cut her vertebral artery."
Since the stroke left her with a brain blood clot that could potentially cause even more damage, Smith hopes that her shocking story can help raise awareness about these salon mishaps.
"So I do live with that every night. I go to sleep wondering, will I wake up tomorrow?" she said.
After Smith’s stroke on January 5, 2014, doctors drew up a report that said her tests and scans showed clear signs of a particular stroke, commonly called a “beauty parlor stroke” by neurologists.
In addition to impairment in her left eye, the report stated that Smith seemed to have "unsteady gait and loss of motor skills in her left hand," following the stroke.
Dr. Warren Selman, Director of the Neurological Institute at University Hospitals Case Medical Center, who is not connected to Smith’s case, explained to ABC News that the term “beauty parlor stroke” is "definitely something that all neurologists know about."
"Actually calling it a 'beauty parlor stroke' is relatively common in the teaching, it's been reported quite a lot," he said, in reference to the way many people hyper-extend their necks while having their hair shampooed in a salon.
"If you tip your head back and get numbness or tingling and your speech slurs," Selman added, those are telltale signs of an injury.
Despite the lawsuit, Blowbunny: Blow Dry & Hair Extension Bar has continued to deny any negligence in Smith’s case.
In fact, court documents show that the salon alleges Smith "failed to exercise any degree of care for her own safety and as a result proximately caused her own injuries."
