Ohio State Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones died this week in Cleveland from a brain aneurtsm that ruptured while she was driving. She was taken to the Cleveland Clinic and was unable to recover. She was only 58 years old.
Brain aneurysms are little balloon type 'pockets' that are found in the arteries. Many are in the brain but can also be found around the heart or in the legs or other areas of the body.
It is thought that about 4% of people have aneurysms (based on autopsy statistics) which is pretty staggering. Most people don't even know they have an aneurysm and live with it. Unless it ruptures, they can live to be 100 and die of other causes. Aneurysms themselves are not fatal but if they rupture, they can be - and death can be fast. About 10% of people who have an aneurysm will experience a rupture.
WebMD has a question and answer session with Howard Kirshner, MD, professor and chairman of neurology at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville. I thought I'd put it here, to educate us a little more about this mysterious but scary condition -
"What is a brain aneurysm?
"An [unruptured] aneurysm looks kind of like a balloon, an out-pouching of an artery," Kirshner says. "It almost always occurs at a point where the artery branches off."
While Tubbs Jones had a cerebral, or brain aneurysm; aneurysms can also occur in the aorta (the major artery from the heart), the leg, and other areas. Aneurysms are related to weaknesses in the blood vessel wall.
How common is a brain aneurysm?
''We think that many people have them -- up to 4% have it at autopsy," Kirshner says, citing research, but many show no symptoms. According to Kirshner, about 5% of people will develop a brain aneurysm during their lifetime, but only about 10% of them will experience a rupture.
As a crude estimate, he says, perhaps 25,000 to 50,000 people a year in the U.S. have a brain hemorrhage caused by a ruptured aneurysm. Family history plays a role, experts believe. Family members of a patient with a brain aneurysm have an increased risk of having one. Yet only a small percentage of these are related to hereditary syndromes associated with aneurysms.
Women are more likely than men to have an aneurysm, and African-Americans have more risk of hemorrhage from an aneurysm than do whites.
What are the symptoms that an aneurysm has ruptured?
Aneurysms often go undetected because they can have no symptoms until they rupture and bleed. When that happens, it can cause a sudden severe headache and sometimes nothing more than that, Kirshner says. "But it is usually not like any other headache you've had. It is very sudden or severe, the worst headache of your life." Other symptoms include severe neck pain, dizziness, nausea, and sensitivity to light.
One-third to nearly half of patients have minor hemorrhages or "warning leaks" that later lead to a severe devastating brain hemorrhage days later.
Sometimes, when an aneurysm ruptures, it can go unnoticed, with the person passing off the headache. But once it ruptures, Kirshner says, it is more likely to re-bleed.
Is there a typical age bracket for aneurysms to rupture?
"They are most common in middle age -- the 40s and 50s are the peak ages," he says. But they can happen at any age. "I've seen them in teenagers. They do occasionally occur in elderly people."
What can someone do to reduce the risk of an aneurysm growing and rupturing?
"Not smoking and treating hypertension prevent aneurysms from growing and rupturing," Kirshner says.
In general, what is the outlook for someone whose brain aneurysm bursts?
The prognosis, Kirshner says, "is very uncertain." A ruptured aneurysm can cause sudden death, he says. In general, "if you are in bad shape right in the beginning, the odds of recovery are much lower." The overall death rate once the aneurysm ruptures is about 40%, he says.
What might be done when the rupture is discovered?
Getting treatment as soon as possible is critical, he says. If it's possible to do surgery, one option is to go in surgically and put a clip across the aneurysm to stop bleeding. "An even more common surgery is to go through the artery and deploy a coil [into the aneurysm, using a tiny catheter] and the coil causes the aneurysm to shut off." The coil causes a clot to form around the sac, sealing off the aneurysm defect."
http://www.webmd.com/brain/news/20080821/aneurysms-common-sometimes-dead...
If anyone has anything to add or had their own experience, I'd love to hear it!
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Add a Comment96 Comments
i enjoyed reading your story i am the kind of person who wants to investigate something if its not right mum had to go to hospital detected anerismy in her brain small bleed sent her home 3 days later brain dead and no answers until few months waiting for investigation hope the jane doesn't run through family
June 6, 2015 - 7:29amThis Comment
Four years ago, age 47, I felt a sudden pressure-type ache occur in my head while working out. I sat for a bit thinking it was just a head rush from the exercise I was doing. But the pain got worse and I started feeling nauseus. I'm a firefighter/EMT and was on duty at the time so I had my partner check my blood pressure, which was way high for me. I had an ambulance take me to the ER as I felt something was definitely wrong. A CT scan showed a ruptured brain anuerysm with SAH. I went into surgery to have the anuerysm clipped. I recovered fully from that event with no deficits. Three years later, while on vacation with my family in Disney World, the same anuerysm ruptured again, knocking me unconscious. I was rushed by ambulance to Orlando Regional Medical Center where I underwent endovascular coiling to stop the bleed. I recovered fully once again from this second bleed but have now been recently diagnosed with a small bubble forming on the surface of the same anuerysm. My neurosurgeon is following this closely with periodic angiograms and CT scans. Not sure how I have dodged these bullets, but I'm still here to continue to watch my two daughters grow up and to create many more memories with them and my wife!!
April 30, 2015 - 7:51amThis Comment
The doctors at the hospital all said they could do nothing for my husband on New Years Day 2015 when his anuerism ruptured and all they would say is he will be dead in 12 hours. We didn't even know he had an anuerism.
August 16, 2015 - 9:04amThis Comment
He was 48.
August 16, 2015 - 9:06amThis Comment
Thank u for story . My brother 33 facing the second like you and on first health alert they gave two hours to two days. They can't understand how he is still with us. Now he facing 2 ms aneurism they r pushing for us to sign a dnr as his medical power attorney . We refuse . I figure God will decide this one
May 16, 2015 - 4:10amThis Comment
5 months at my 24 year old daughter passed away of a brain aneurysm. I wish there would have been signs of discomfort or headache. It was a catastrophic aneurysm. No hope no recovery.
April 13, 2015 - 3:04pmThis Comment
so sorry to hear so young my mum passed away last week of very bad aneurysm doctors could of saved her let her home with small bleed in head and major one came passed away everything shut down what i want to know is there any medication to prevent this
June 6, 2015 - 7:36amThis Comment
My Dad's first aneurysm was found doing a regular doctor visit, they detected a heart beat sound in his stomach, couldn't do anything until it got bigger, just kept check on it, that was in 2010. Then 2012 another doctor visit for his high blood pressure, the doctor asked my dad if he has any other problems, and my dad is the type of guy who never worries about himself, but told the doctor that he had been having these headaches that would last for a couple of minutes and after would leave the side of his face numb for 5-10 minutes. So they did a mri and found 2 aneurysms, one on each side of the brain intertwined around the artereys, each at about 6.0. And told him he would probably die on the table if they tried to fix them. January 2015 they finally did the surgery on the stomach aneurysm,he came through with flying colors, but before the surgery they had to run a lot of tests on him, the 2 brain aneurysms have not grown any, but he now has a 3rd one near the brain and just his luck they have found one more behind his heart. My dad is 72, and when he was in his late 30's his blood pressure got so high, they don't know how he survived it and now think that the 2 original brain aneurysms were a result from that, over 30 years ago. He's still active and likes to do everything for himself and as he tells it, I'm not in the grave yet, so please stop trying to put me there to the family. I know it's not easy, but always try and think positive, worry is just paying the interest on a loan not due yet.
April 13, 2015 - 4:57amThis Comment
My mum was 18 I was 10 days old and she passed from one. I always get headaches. I'm now 29 and think it's time to have a checkup.
April 13, 2015 - 4:26amThis Comment
please get it checked. My mom passed away from the same thing when i was 20 i just had brain aneurysm surgery 3 weeks ago. The doctor said its hereditary and I probably had it for years and it finally ruptured. He told my sisters and my daughter to go asap and have a cat scan to make sure that they don't have one. The cat scan will show signs of one in your brain. They can operate before it bleeds. It's an easy procedure. I went to the ER as soon as mine ruptured so it saved my life that i caught it that fast.
November 10, 2015 - 11:49amThis Comment