My Mother suffered a brain aneurysm on the same day she was suppose to take my grandfather to the hospital to undergo surgery for his aortic aneurysm. She was at my grandparents house and I was on the phone with her. I remember her saying her head felt funny and suddenly the phone was silent. I heard my grandmother in the background saying her name "Dianne!" My grandmother picked up the phone and I told her to call 911 right away. I knew something was very wrong.
I met the ambulance at the hospital. No one knew what was wrong. By this time my mother was conscious again, but vomiting violently. The ER physician told us she was probably just nervous about my grandfather's surgery and because she had only had a diet shake for lunch, she should probably just eat something and go home. My sister and I knew something more was wrong and insisted that they run tests. After about 10 hours and several lumbar punctures, they decided to do a CT Scan and found the aneurysm. It was a larger one with a smaller one attached - a double aneurysm behind her eye.
It was at least 5 days later that she was stable enough for the surgery. We are so lucky that she survived and except for some minor health problems, she is well. There is still pain and swelling - even ten years later - from the surgery. My grandfather survived his surgery too, but later died from unrelated complications.
I never thought I would have to deal with something like this again until yesterday. My friend and coworker, Jill R. was driving home and talking to our boss on her cell phone when he says all of the sudden she was gone. He thought she had hit a cellular dead zone, but when he called back 10 minutes later, the EMT answered her phone. She had suffered a massive brain aneurysm and wrecked her car. Luckily no one else was involved. She is currently in the NICU at a local hospital and to complicate matters, she is pregnant. She has not regained consciousness and according to doctors, she never will. Now the questions remains, what about her pregnancy? Can she remain on life support long enough to give the fetus time to develop? Her family must make a very difficult decision. No one has the answer today...
Lesson Learned... Live life everyday to the fullest, appreciate what and who you have in your life. You never know...
Update 24 Sep 2000
My friend Jill died today after lying comatose for four days. The massive brain aneurysm she suffered took not only her life, but the life of her two unborn babies. Jill had a grandmother to die of an aneurysm as well. Please consider that a ruptured aneurysm may be preventable with screenings. Don't be a victim...