Julie Brothers, a 37-year-old from New York, survived a ruptured brain aneurysm after doctors first misdiagnosed her with a migraine. For more than 36 hours, the condition went untreated, leaving her at risk of stroke, brain damage, or death. “You know your body better than anybody else,” she told The Post.
The pain struck suddenly while she was working from home: “It was like something snapped inside of me.” She experienced nausea, blurred vision, and a stiff neck but was sent home from a clinic with painkillers. Christine Buckley of the Brain Aneurysm Foundation noted, “Misdiagnosis occurs 25% of the time because of the failure to do a scan.”
By the time Brothers reached Mount Sinai’s ER, doctors found a marble-sized aneurysm leaking blood near her brain stem. Neurosurgeon Dr. Christopher Kellner performed emergency surgery, threading a coil into the artery to stop the bleeding.
Recovery was long: three weeks in the hospital, three months before returning to work. Just months later, she completed the BAF’s 5K alongside her surgeon. Today, she is healthy, independent, and grateful. “Life is for the living,” she said.
Doctors warn that a sudden, severe “thunderclap headache” should never be ignored.
