When TikToker Christie (@cjthemom5) was 14 years old, she was assaulted by her chiropractor. At a young age, she had constant back pain due to having slight scoliosis. Her dad just wanted to help her with her back pain, but they couldn’t afford to go to a chiropractor.
One day, her dad found a coupon in the newspaper for a free examination with a chiropractor. They took a bus to the other side of town. Christie went in and met the chiropractor.
He conducted his assessment, and when he told her dad how much the treatment would cost, her dad said that he couldn’t afford it. A few days later, someone knocked on their door. It was the chiropractor, along with his two kids.
“He said he started thinking about it, he felt bad, and he would like to still treat me for free at no cost,” said Christie.
“So, of course, my dad was really excited because he couldn’t afford it. To get treatment for me was exciting.”
Christie’s first appointment started off with X-rays. At 14 years old, she had never gotten X-rays done before, so she didn’t know what the proper procedure was.
The chiropractor took advantage of that and performed the X-rays without a nurse in the room. He instructed her to completely undress and put the gown on.
Afterward, he asked her a bunch of strange questions. Some of them were normal and actually related to her back pain. Others were about whether she had ever kissed a boy.
The next couple of visits were pretty normal. There was one visit where he was pushing on her back, and she could hear him make weird moaning sounds.
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Then, he took her to his back office and told her to put on the gown again to see if any progress was being made.
First, he had her lie down on her stomach and then switch to lying on her back. That was when he proceeded to violate her to the point where she was bleeding. She felt frozen and couldn’t do anything but sit there while tears fell down the side of her face.
She came out of the office crying but was too scared to tell her dad what had happened. So, she simply told him that the chiropractor had pushed too hard on her back. That night, she went home and immediately took a shower.
She didn’t tell anyone about the assault until she was in foster care. When she told the social worker and a police officer what the chiropractor had done to her, he was arrested.
It turned out that multiple other women had claimed they had been assaulted by him as well. When Christie was around 17 years old, she had to testify against him in court.
He ended up getting convicted, sentenced to prison, and losing his chiropractic license.
“I’ve still had back issues most of my life, and finally, about a year ago, I was able to go to a chiropractor, which was a very big deal for me,” said Christie.
“I remember having so much anxiety, but I was also walking into that chiropractor’s office a different person. I was a lot more healed and definitely a lot stronger.”
By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
