17-Year-Old Dies After Hickey From Girlfriend Causes Stroke - Time Magazine

A 17-year-old boy in Mexico City has reportedly died after a hickey he received from his girlfriend caused a stroke.

Doctors believe the suction of the hickey—or love bite—resulted in a blood clot, which traveled to Julio Macias Gonzalez’s brain and caused a stroke, the Independent and local Mexican media reported. The teenager had convulsions while eating dinner with his family after hanging out with his 24-year-old girlfriend and later died, the newspaper said.

This is at least the second reported incident of a hickey causing a stroke. A hickey had caused a 44-year-old New Zealand woman to have a non-fatal stroke, according to a 2010 study published in the New Zealand Medical Journal. Researchers at the time called the medical condition “a rare phenomenon.”