Famous Company
21 April 2009, 19:42
I recently became curious about “famous” people who have burst brain aneurysms, figuring that given 0.0001% of the population burst an annie every year, surely there had to be a few prodigal sons and daughters amongst them? My research uncovered the following (in chronological order):
Anne Baxter, an Academy Award winning actress, died of a burst aneurysm in 1985 while walking down Madison Avenue.
Quincy Jones got swept up in his own private hurricane annie in the 70s and can no longer play the trumpet (apparently it could potentially dislodge the chip in his brain). I guess such a brain bleed could explain a lot of things. Such as Michael Jackson.
In 1995 Bill Berry, once the drummer for R.E.M, collapsed on stage during a show from a brain aneurysm. He recovered and rejoined the band, but left for good in October 1997.
Sharon Stone had a mild aneurysm in 2001 that required no treatment.
Laura Branigan died in 2004 of a brain aneurysm in her sleep after having complained about severe headaches for 2 weeks leading up to her death. She was 47 years old.
Neil Young survived a burst aneurysm in 2005, and had it coiled. [Coiling is the minimally-invasive way of treating aneurysms via angiogram – the surgeons decided not to coil my aneurysm as it was too close to a major artery so I got a ticket to the skull opening special.]
Teri Garr got the ultimate bum deal – being diagnosed with MS in the 80s and then bursting an aneurysm in 2006. She survived.
The most interesting one for me was Patricia Neal, the actress and one-time wife of Roald Dahl who was a heavy smoker (tsk tsk) and in 1965, burst three (3!) cerebral aneurysms while pregnant, and was in a coma for three weeks. She later gave birth to a healthy girl, Lucy.
I found this interesting as I had already pondered the potential ramifications of having burst my own annie had I been pregnant (as we’d been trying mid last year so this could have been a real possibility). I had come to the conclusion that it would have been very dire indeed, with the initial fall, pumped full of general anaesthetic and hardcore painkillers and a compromised ability to “bounce back” from such a life-changing event – surely that would have affected an unborn child?
Apparently Not.
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