My wife died of a brain aneurysm on November 13, 1996. She was 57 years old. The underlying cause of her death was a ruptured anterior communicating artery aneurysm.
The strange thing about her aneurysm was that the first symptoms she experienced were an extremely painful headache followed by vomiting and diarrhea for about three days before embarking on a two–week trip to Egypt. The headache occurred on the 13th of October 1996. She left on her trip on the 16th of October. She had an excellent trip to Egypt, returning home on the 28th of October, at which time she still complained of some headaches and soreness in her joints. About the 4th of November, my oldest daughter who is a nurse noticed in a telephone conversation with my wife that my wife was disoriented and sounded very sleepy. My daughter took my wife to the hospital where it was determined that she had suffered an aneurysm. Surgery was scheduled,but on her way to the operating room, my wife lapsed into a coma from which she never recovered. We finally took her off life support on the 13th of November,and within fifteen minutes she was dead.
I was on a nine-week business trip to Saudi Arabia when all this occurred,so I was unable to be of any help to her when all this started. It wasn't until after my daughter took my wife to the hospital that she called me in Saudi Arabia to tell me what had happened. I flew home as quickly as I could, arriving on the 6th of November, one week before we took her off life support.
The thing that I wish to bring to your attention is the fact that she was able to travel and function for three weeks after the initial severe headache on the 13th of October. Is it not true that a severe headache is a symptom of an aneurysm that has burst and bled? It amazes me in hindsight that she was able to travel and function after suffering such a devastating blow.
For your information, my wife was a smoker. She had tried to quit several times, but was unsuccessful. If only she had been able to quit smoking she might still be with me today.