Playboy model and Snapchat “queen” Katie May, who died Thursday of a stroke at age 34, saw a chiropractor — not a medical doctor — for her neck pain, according to her family.
“To the best of my family’s knowledge, and we are fairly but not totally certain of this, Katie did not seek medical care prior to Monday evening,” her brother Stephen May told People magazine. “If she had, it seems reasonable to conclude, the subsequent days would have unfolded very differently.”
Known as the “Queen of Snapchat,” May tweeted on Jan. 29 that she had pinched “a nerve in my neck on a Photoshoot and got adjusted this morning,” adding that she was returning to the chiropractor.
“I don’t know the cause of Katie’s neck pain,” her brother told People. “We only knew that she was feeling discomfort.”
On Thursday, family members told TMZ that the stroke may have been brought on by a blockage in May’s carotid artery, following a possible fall during a photo shoot last week.
The model’s most recent Instagram post, from earlier this week, reads, “Hope everyone is having a great Monday! It’s very windy here in LA.” Her Facebook profile states that she is originally from Pittsburgh.
The GoFundMe page set up to support May’s 7-year-old daughter, Mia, read earlier this week, “Katie’s family plans on using any money raised to help pay for education, Mia’s daily life and to help her dad with the costs of parenting.”
May appeared in a pictorial with other social-media stars on Playboy.com last fall.