Aneurysm: Doctors misdiagnosed my ruptured brain aneurysm at 37 — the key wa.rning sign they overlooked

“Before the aneurysm, I think a sprained ankle was probably the worst of my health issues,” she said. But everything changed on the night of April 23, 2024.

Brothers was wrapping up work from home, hunched over her laptop and scarfing down takeout, when she was struck by a searing pain in the back of her head out of nowhere.

“I’ve never been shot in the head, however, if I were to compare it to anything, it was that sudden,” she said. “It was like something snapped inside of me.”

She had never experienced a migraine — but she’d heard the horror stories from friends and wondered whether this was her first.

Aneurysms typically form in arteries in the brain, not in the veins.
Julie Brothers

“I started to think, wow, I guess people aren’t joking, because this is pretty awful,” she said.

Nausea, dizziness, blurred vision and a neck so stiff she could barely move followed. She managed to get a glass of water from the kitchen before collapsing into bed — but by the next morning, her symptoms had only gotten worse.

“I was vomiting and I was getting quite dehydrated because I couldn’t even keep a sip of water down at that point,” she said.