{"id":38599,"date":"2025-08-01T23:18:05","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T23:18:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/38599\/"},"modified":"2025-08-01T23:18:05","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T23:18:05","slug":"women-hospitalised-with-lung-injuries-after-dry-needling-at-bendigo-massage-clinic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/38599\/","title":{"rendered":"Women hospitalised with lung injuries after dry needling at Bendigo massage clinic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two Bendigo women have been treated for lung injuries after receiving dry needling treatments at a local massage clinic.<\/p>\n

Dry needling is the practice of inserting small needles into tight muscles to try and relieve them.<\/p>\n

It is different to acupuncture, which has lengthier and more rigorous training requirements.<\/p>\n

The ABC understands two women had massages at Miracle Health Massage in Eaglehawk on separate occasions in July and had dry needling included in their session.<\/p>\n

\"shop<\/p>\n

Two people have reported dry needling injuries after attending Miracle Health Massage in Eaglehawk. (ABC News: Sarah Lawrence)<\/p>\n

One of the women, Julie \u2014 her name changed for privacy reasons \u2014 said she began experiencing severe shortness of breath at the end of her appointment.<\/p>\n

She said staff at the massage centre called an ambulance and she was taken to Bendigo Health.<\/p>\n

Julie said doctors confirmed she had a pneumothorax, or collapsed lung, which required the insertion of a chest tube to drain her lung.<\/p>\n

She said doctors advised her not to drive or fly for at least 10 weeks.<\/p>\n

Bendigo Health said it could not comment on the matter due to patient privacy.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Victorian Health Complaints Commissioner (HCC) confirmed to the ABC it was aware of two complaints about the same Bendigo centre.<\/p>\n

“The HCC has recently received complaints regarding pneumothorax as a result of dry needling and we are currently looking into it,” the spokesperson said in a statement.<\/p>\n

“We do not hesitate to take action if we believe there is a risk to public safety.<\/p>\n

“If anyone has experienced pneumothorax after dry needling, or has information about unsafe practices, we encourage them to contact us directly.”<\/p>\n

Zaparas Lawyers said it was exploring legal action on behalf of one of the women.<\/p>\n

“There is a level of care that members of the community expect will be adhered to and incidents like these should not happen to anyone,” said senior associate Georgio Skoumbri.<\/p>\n

“We are committed to pursuing compensation for all those who have been injured as a result of negligent treatment.”<\/p>\n

Business investigating<\/p>\n

Miracle Massage Eaglehawk owner Lin Yang told the ABC she was still investigating the complaint.<\/p>\n

She said the staff member who did the dry needling was recently qualified but would not be continuing with the practice.<\/p>\n

Who can help you manage aches and pains?<\/a><\/p>\n

Physiotherapists, chiropractors, osteopaths and myotherapists \u2014 who do you choose to help manage your aches and pains, and what are the differences? Charlotte Ganderton and Matthew King explain.<\/p>\n

Ms Yang said she was yet to speak directly with Julie, who she described as a regular customer.<\/p>\n

“If the client has any questions I hope we can resolve them together,” she said.<\/p>\n

The ABC understands dry needling injuries are rare, with the HCC receiving low numbers of complaints in the past two years.<\/p>\n

Royal Australian College of General Practitioners rural chair associate professor Michael Clements said it was “very unlikely and very rare” a small needle, such as in dry needling, could cause pneumothorax.<\/p>\n

“It would be extremely rare, and an unfortunate complication, for that [needle] to penetrate all the way into that lung cavity,” he said.<\/p>\n

“But as soon as you’re putting needles where they are not supposed to go, and penetrating that normal skin barrier, we do have to think about risks like that.”<\/p>\n

Dr Clements said pneumothorax occurred when air escaped into a space between the lung and chest wall.<\/p>\n

He said it was also not unusual for emergency departments to deal with cases of spontaneous pneumothorax.<\/p>\n

“It can also occur after chest infections or if they have got underlying lung disease.”<\/p>\n

But Dr Clements said if a person who presented with pneumothorax had had penetrating treatment with needles then doctors would probe that.<\/p>\n

“This would certainly be high on our list of potential causes,” he said.<\/p>\n

Self-regulated industry issues<\/p>\n

Melbourne myotherapist and a former director of the Association of Massage Therapists, Ian Lim, said he was concerned but not surprised to hear of injuries from dry needling.<\/p>\n

Mr Lim said the treatment was often confused with acupuncture, which had more lengthy and rigorous training requirements.<\/p>\n

“[Acupuncture] practitioners must undergo years of formal education and licensing in Australia through the Chinese Medicine Board,” Mr Lim said.<\/p>\n

“I am very conservative with my approach to dry needling and only use it as a last resort because of its risk profile.”<\/p>\n

Massage and Myotherapy Australia chief executive Ann Davey said reports of injuries linked to dry needling were “very concerning”.<\/p>\n

She said the massage industry was self-regulated and anyone could claim to be a therapist.<\/p>\n

\"blonde<\/p>\n

Ann Davey says reports of injuries linked to dry needling were “very concerning”. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Ms Davey urged the public to check the qualifications of their therapists before attending appointments.<\/p>\n

“You wouldn’t visit a GP, dentist, optometrist or physiotherapist without checking their credentials,” she said.<\/p>\n

“The same principle should apply here.<\/p>\n

“Being a self-regulated industry doesn’t mean clients can’t or shouldn’t ask to see someone’s qualifications.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two Bendigo women have been treated for lung injuries after receiving dry needling treatments at a local massage…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,34508,34504,34509,34510,34511,137,34512,34507,34506,34505],"class_list":["post-38599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bendigo-massage","tag-dry-needling","tag-dry-needling-bendigo","tag-dry-needling-injury","tag-dry-needling-lung-injury","tag-health","tag-lung-injury","tag-miracle-massage","tag-myotherapy","tag-needles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}