Marlene’s Story – Video

Marlene and her husband Dave reflect on how a brain aneurysm forever changed their family and why that experience continues to inspire their support of the Brain Aneurysm Foundation more than 35 years later.

Video Transcript

Marlene: My father, who had had a history of headaches, had a very significant headache throughout the day that was unlike other headaches that he had had previously. And in the evening he collapsed and lost consciousness, and my mother called an ambulance, and he was transported. He was, as it turned out, a quadriplegic. His speech and language centers were quite impaired. My mother became his primary caretaker, and it was clear that he would not be able to recover enough to assume his job or even to live at home. And she became responsible for coordinating all of his allied health services as well as creating some kind of fulfilling life for him.

Dave: It was life changing for us. And it was a loss and such a change for the family. It was dramatic. And it continued to be for some time thereafter.

Marlene: Dave has run the Falmouth Road Race on Cape Cod for many years. And I thought that I would like to do the same. I discovered that Falmouth sponsors organizations that you can run for. So I started looking down the list, and when I found the Brain Aneurysm Foundation, it just activated the fact that my father had died from a brain aneurysm over 35 years ago. It just activated the fact that my father had died from a brain aneurysm over 35 years ago. It just activated the fact that my father had died from a brain aneurysm over 35 years ago. It is important for trainees, doctors, and other medical professionals to understand that what happens is absolutely a life-and-death matter for the patient, but it is also a very traumatic event for the family and extended family, and that there ought to be support. I think that there is a need for immediate family support to help navigate the severity and the fact that, in a heartbeat, a life could be lost.