In this story, Vincent Z shares his story experiencing a brain aneurysm at 23 years old.

I suffered my brain aneurysm rupture on October 30, 2020 when I was 23 years old. I was playing games on my computer late at night with friends as I often did especially in the midst of the pandemic. It was around midnight when I was struck with the thunderclap headache of my rupture. I likened it to a bomb going off or being struck with a hammer but even that much didn’t spur me to action. It wasn’t until the left side of my face started tingling that I got up without a word and grabbed my phone. My parents had just gotten back from vacation and were spending their first night back in their own beds so as I was calling for help I wanted to let them know. I made my way up the split level stairs as my leg started to go numb, I can still remember kicking the backboard on every step. When I got to my mom’s room I was on the phone telling the operator to come get me. I waited until I heard the sirens in the distance but I was so anxious I tried to get up to meet them at the door only to fall on the floor because my leg was limp. My last memory is being on a stretcher at the top of my stairs wondering how they’d get me out of the house.

Then came a 10 day sedated stay in the ICU where they performed an embolization procedure and placed an EVD. After I recovered from that I was sent to a rehab hospital where I would spend the next two months doing inpatient rehab. I graduated that stay just a few days shy of Christmas so I could be home with my family again. Ever since then I’ve done outpatient rehabilitation as much as my insurance allowed and am now back to almost everything except for running and driving. But I keep improving so I’ll never say never.