(CNN) Josh Hader had a sore neck, so he tried to stretch it out, accidentally popping it. The next thing he knew, the left side of his body started to go numb.

He went to the kitchen for an ice pack but couldn't walk straight. "I kept walking at almost a 45-degree [angle] to the left," he said.

Hader, 28, from Guthrie, Oklahoma, had a serious stroke by cracking his neck.

Dr. Vance McCollom, who treated him at Mercy Hospital, said the stroke was life-changing but could have been worse.

"When he popped his neck, he tore arteries that go to the bone of the neck, where the neck joins the skull at the base of the brain," he said. "The way he twisted the neck caused a bisection."

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