Stroke kills Playboy model and Queen of Snapchat Katie May at age 34

Katie May, a blonde bombshell, died on Thursday at the age of 34 after suffering a stroke. May is a Playboy model who was featured in the iconic magazine’s fall issue as one of the celebrity reigning social media stars.

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The daughter of teachers from a small town outside Pittsburgh, Katie had experienced neck pain recently and sought treatment for a blockage on her carotid artery which caused the massive stroke, her family said. She died in an unidentified medical center in Los Angeles.

According to WebMB, Katie’s ailment, carotid artery stenosis, is caused by the narrowing of the carotid arteries often due to buildup of fatty substances and plaque, or cholesterol deposits. Obstruction of the carotid arteries places a person at high risk for a stroke, the third-leading cause of death in the US. In Australia, latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics say that in 2009, about 1.8 percent of the population, or about 381,400 Aussies, suffered a stroke.

The carotid arteries, made up of two large blood vessels, supply oxygenated blood to the large, front part of the brain where thinking, personality, speech and sensory and motor functions reside. The carotid arteries’ pulse on each side of the neck, right below the angle of the jaw line, could be felt.

A stroke, like what happened to the Queen of Snapchat, is sometimes called a brain attack and is similar to a heart attack. A stroke happens when blood flow from the part of the brain is cut off. If the lack of blood flow is more than three to six hours, the damage is often permanent, notes WebMD.

Because Katie was a social media celebrity, on Thursday, there were posts that she died. She reached that status, considered a plus for people like models and stars, after amassing 1.9 million followers on Instagram, where she posted on Monday, the day she was hospitalised, a photo showing her curvaceous backside while wearing a tiny bikini. She was also the cover girl of Sports Illustrated’s November 2015 issue.

The photo gave no hint of her medical problem, although TMZ reports that she was in a critical condition until she died after she was taken off life support, according to sources of the entertainment Web site. Katie, a single mother, left behind a 7-year-old daughter.