Mother Makes Remarkable Recovery after Brain Aneurysm Ruptures

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CLEVELAND - As 39-year-old Julianne Smith enjoys a warm cup of coffee with her husband, she can’t help but feel gratitude.

In January 2024, she almost died from a ruptured brain aneurysm.

“It's truly miraculous. I really do believe that it's the power of prayer that got me here,” said Julianne.

Julianne was at home with her daughters when it happened.

She remembers not feeling well, but her next memory isn’t until she woke up from a medically induced coma at Cleveland Clinic.

“I just remember looking at my neurosurgeon so perplexed like, how did this happen to me,” she recalled.

“When she first came in, her prognosis was very grim,” said Nina Moore, MD, neurosurgeon for Cleveland Clinic. “Her presentation was one of the severest forms of hemorrhage, and so people don't typically do well with that.”

Dr. Moore said Julianne underwent multiple life-saving surgeries, including having part of her skull temporarily removed due to swelling.

“We were able to reinsert it, and now her head is fully reconstructed,” she noted.

Julianne spent two months in the hospital and spent countless hours in intensive therapy.

“I feel like I'm regaining my strength back. I try to walk three miles a day. I've gotten back into yoga, which is incredible to think about. Here I am balancing on one foot where before I didn't even know how to walk,” she said.

She has since learned that the type of aneurysm she had was genetic, so now the rest of her family is being screened.

So far, both her daughter and sister have been found to have one, too.