As incredible as it may seem, the practice of the hickey can have terrible consequences. The sad news of this Mexican teenager who died after getting a hickey is unfortunately not a first.
Julio Macias was a 17-year-old Mexican boy who died last week of a stroke. Rescuers arrived at the scene of the tragedy, but it was too late. According to the Mexican media Info Noticias, this stroke was caused by a hickey his girlfriend had made on his neck.
The pressure exerted by the hickey was such that a hematoma formed on the wall of an artery in the neck, which would have facilitated the appearance of a blood clot which went up to the brain, causing a embolism. The same evening following the afternoon spent in the company of his girlfriend, Julio Macias was seized with convulsions with his family in the middle of a meal, before the emergency services came to note the death as well as the reasons for the tragedy.
Julio Macias’ girlfriend, named Iris, is 24 years old, and the family of the deceased was absolutely against this relationship, because of the age difference. Since the death of the young man, his family is therefore considering filing a complaint against Iris for manslaughter, according to ABC.
In New Zealand, a similar case had already caused a sensation in 2010. A 44-year-old woman had gone to the hospital after the onset of paralysis in her left arm. The doctors had diagnosed him with thrombosis of the internal carotid artery, also originating from a hickey. The blood clot had however traveled to his heart, causing damage to an artery and paralysis of one of his arms.
The dangers of the hickey had also been the subject of a study the same year, published in The New Zealand Medical Journal.
Sources: La Dépêche – PositivR – Santé Magazine