Donald McAvoy was 38 years old and owned his own gym when he began feeling a persistent neck pain that would not go away.
He dealt with it as he always did: cracking his neck with his hands, something he had been doing for years without thinking twice. But this time the pain did not go away. Months later, while eating in front of the television and watching a soccer match, he choked. Within seconds, he lost his vision and control of his body. At the hospital, doctors explained what had happened: a vertebral artery dissection, a tear in one of the blood vessels that carry blood to the brain, had caused multiple strokes.
Since December 2023, he has lived with double vision, balance problems, fatigue and numbness on his right side. Even so, he married Rachel in March 2026, and the next day the American Heart Association named him Survivor of the Year. Today, he is sharing his story so that no one else ignores neck pain that will not go away.
