Nette had been going to her chiropractor regularly for more than seven years, receiving adjustments to her back and neck that she believed helped maintained her health. The suit outlines that minutes after a routine chiropractic visit that included a neck adjustment, on September 13, 2007, Sandy felt ill and had to compose herself in the clinic's waiting room. She tried to drive home but only got as far as an off ramp south of Edmonton's Yellowhead Highway. That's when she called her husband, David who took her directly to hospital where she suffered a massive stroke.

The unprecedented lawsuit is groundbreaking because it is the first time lawyers have challenged the veracity of the fundamental underpinnings of chiropractic in a court of law in Canada. If successful, chiropractors in Alberta would have to repay a decade's worth of fees - about $500 million - to all patients of chiropractors who were injured by or received so-called "inappropriate and non-beneficial adjustments".

In the statement of claim, which has not been proven in court, the plaintiffs charge that the Alberta College and Association of Chiropractors "willfully and recklessly blinded themselves" to the fact that many chiropractors were offering disproven and ineffective treatments that were useless and dangerous. It also claims that the College "acted in bad faith," putting "the promotional and economic interests of chiropractors ahead of its duty to protect the public from economic exploitation and physical harm."

Dr. Brian Gushaty is the registrar for the Alberta College and Association of Chiropractors. He declined to comment on the suit prior to its review by the organization's legal counsel. "This is the first that I've heard of it, so I don't feel it's responsible to make any comment about it ..."