‘Love bite’ partially paralyses woman

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Wellington: A Christ church doctor has reported a case where a Maori woman was left partially paralysed by a love bite from her amorous partner.

Dr Teddy Wu, who is currently working in the neurology department at Christchurch Hospital, said he believed it was the first time someone had been hospitalised by a 'hickey'.

The 44-year-old woman went to the emergency department after experiencing loss of movement in her left arm.

It happened while she was sitting watching television.

The only injury was a lovebite on the right of her neck near an artery.

"Because it was a lovebite there would be a lot of suction,” The Press quoted Wu as saying.

"Because of the physical trauma it had made a bit of bruising inside the vessel," said Wu.

"There was a clot in the artery underneath where the hickey was," Wu added.

The clot had gone into the woman's heart and caused a minor stroke that led to the loss of movement, he said.

She was treated with warfarin, an anticoagulant.

That treatment saw the clot disappear almost entirely within a week, he said.

An article on the case has appeared in the New Zealand Medical Journal.