Julie Brothers, a 37-year-old New York City woman, began feeling a severe pain in the back of her head. She believed it was a migraine, and a walk-in clinic agreed. Turns out, she had a ruptured aneurysm that went untreated for 36 hours, which almost killed her.
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In an exclusive piece with the New York Post, Brothers recalled the near-fatal ordeal. Working as a TV producer, Brothers was an otherwise healthy woman. However, on April 23, 2024, she began feeling a severe pain in the back of her head.
“I’ve never been shot in the head, however, if I were to compare it to anything, it was that sudden,” Brothers said. “It was like something snapped inside of me.”
At the time, she believed she was experiencing a migraine. Her symptoms, though, soon worsened. She experienced dizziness, nausea, blurred vision, and a stiff neck. Eventually, she collapsed in her bed and woke up the next day, with the symptoms worsening by the minute.
“I was vomiting and I was getting quite dehydrated because I couldn’t even keep a sip of water down at that point.” Brothers added.
Brothers called an Uber and arrived at a walk-in clinic. Upon arrival, she described her symptoms and said that she believed she was suffering from migraines. Clinic staff agreed, and they prescribed her some drugs for her pain and nausea. They didn’t perform any tests.
“Even though the walk-in clinic agreed with me that it was a migraine, I knew something wasn’t right,” Brothers said.
Ruptured Aneurysm
Hours later, Brothers was still feeling the pain.
“I don’t know if this is part of being a woman and what we deal with with our bodies, but I wondered, ‘Am I blowing this out of proportion? Am I crazy?'” Brothers added.
Eventually, Brothers called another Uber that drove her to the ER at Mount Sinai Morningside. There, a brain scan revealed her diagnosis: a ruptured aneurysm. As per The Post, it was the size of a marble and was bleeding into the space surrounding her brain.
Dr. Christopher Kellner, a cerebrovascular neurosurgeon and Mount Sinai’s Intracerebral Hemorrhage program director, knew that time was of the essence.
“When the aneurysm bleeds, the blood spreads very quickly and causes inflammation throughout the whole brain and in the arteries around the brain,” Kellner told The Post. “That can cause seizures, increased fluid buildup and increased pressure.”
Kellner performed an endovascular embolization on Julie Brothers, which successfully stopped the bleeding and sealed off the leak.
Following the surgery, Brothers displayed a remarkable recovery. She stayed at the hospital for three weeks and was back on her TV producer job in three months. While the process was hard for the woman, she showed strength. Four months after she was discharged, she completed the Brain Aneurysm Foundation 5K run. Kellner ran by her side.
While she managed to survive and recover, her ruptured aneurysm, which happened spontaneously for her, could have been fatal.
“When you hear someone has had a sudden, severe headache, that’s a sign to go down the route of figuring out if it’s an aneurysm,” Kellner added.