Except nobody told the family about it and the chiropractors now deny that they were told the cause of death or that they entered into any such agreement. When the 1998 inquest into that death recommended that every chiropractor's office should post warnings about the danger of neck manipulation, nothing was done. Despite much lobbying by the family, Chief Coroner Dr. James Young decided last January against holding an inquest. Five months later, he reversed his decision and said it will look at the association between high cervical manipulation and stroke. It's been a battle ever since.
Chiropractors feel they are being unfairly targeted.
But curiously, the family's expert witness who was set to counter that claim has been mysteriously dropped from the Crown's list. Dr. John Norris, a neurologist whose Stroke Consortium at Sunnybrook hospital is conducting a ground-breaking study on the links between stroke and upper cervical manipulation, says his research shows about 125 strokes a year in Canada are caused by neck manipulation. No one has told the family why their star witness will not be allowed to testify. The new Crown involved in the inquest did not return our phone calls. Meanwhile, an angry Norris told Canoe.ca that he is also demanding to know how the chiropractors' lawyer obtained a private e-mail he sent from Sunnybrook to Katz last August.