Katie May, the Playboy model known as the “Queen of Snapchat,” is dead at the age of 34, after suffering a stroke following a neck injury from a fall during a photo shoot last week. May had been hospitalized since Monday after a blockage in her carotid artery caused the stroke. She was in critical condition until her death Thursday evening.
May was checked out immediately after the fall, but released the same day. She continued to suffer pain. However, People magazine reported that her family said she had not seen a physician, but went to a chiropractor. On Jan. 29 she tweeted “Pinched a nerve in my neck on a Photoshoot and got adjusted this morning.” Later on Sunday she added that she was returning to the chiropractor.
Stephen May, the model’s brother, said, “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; if she had, it seems reasonable to conclude, the subsequent days would have unfolded very differently.”
The fall occurred while May was shooting in Los Angeles. TMZ sources say that the star did not pinch a nerve, but instead tore the carotid artery in her neck. Doctors told her family that the tear caused a blood clot that broke off and caused her stroke.
May had nearly 2 million followers on Instagram. She modeled for dozens of magazines and websites, including Sports Illustrated and Playboy. Her final Instagram post, which appeared last Monday before her hospitalization, read “Hope everyone is having a great Monday! Its very windy here today in LA.”
May leaves being a 7-year-old daughter named Mia.