Vim & Vigor - Spring 2020 - Community Healthcare System - 18

7 Things You
(Probably)
Didn't
Know About
Emilia Clarke
Her full name is
Emilia Isobel Euphemia
Rose Clarke.
Her father was a sound
designer who worked on
productions of West Side
Story and Chicago, and
her mother is the vice
president of marketing
for a global management
consultancy.
She decided to be an
actor around age 3 or 4.
In school plays, she
played Anita in West
Side Story, Abigail in
The Crucible and Viola
in Twelfth Night.
Between high school
and college, she took a
yearlong break from studies, working as a waitress
and backpacking in Asia.
After graduating from
college, she had a number
of jobs, including working
at a pub, a call center and
a museum.
Before starring on
Game of Thrones, her
biggest on-screen roles
were in a 2009 episode of
a British TV show called
Doctors and a 2010 movie
called Triassic Attack.
Sources: The New Yorker,
IMDb

SPRING 2020 VIM & VIGOR

year about 30,000 people in the U.S. have a
rupture, according to the Brain Aneurysm
Foundation.
Ruptured brain aneurysms are fatal in
about 50 percent of cases, and of those who
survive, about 66 percent suffer permanent
neurological deficit, the foundation says.
Since Clarke made her story public in
March 2019, her case has helped shine a light
on an often misunderstood condition.
But advocates say there is still a lot for
people to learn.
"People think you die or there's nothing
you can do" when you have an aneurysm, says
Christine J. Buckley, executive director of the
Brain Aneurysm Foundation. "But it's important to know [about brain aneurysms], because
you can be treated."

In the years since
my second surgery,
I have healed
beyond my most
unreasonable hopes.
-Emilia Clarke

Signs and Symptoms

A brain aneurysm is a weak, bulging spot in a
blood vessel in the brain.
"It's almost like a balloon," says Erin Kreszl,
executive director of The Bee Foundation, a
nonprofit that raises awareness about brain
aneurysms and funding for research. "If
enough pressure builds up in that bulging
area, it can burst."
Most brain aneurysms are small and don't
cause any symptoms while they're intact.
But if they burst or rupture, brain aneurysms
can cause a variety of symptoms, including a
sudden, severe headache that's often described
as the worst headache of one's life, weakness
and nausea-all of which Clarke said she
experienced in 2011.
Other symptoms of ruptured aneurysms
include a stiff neck, blurred or double vision,
sensitivity to light, seizure, a drooping eyelid,
a dilated pupil, pain above and behind the eye,
loss of consciousness, and confusion, according to the Brain Aneurysm Foundation.

Causes and Risk Factors

Some people may inherit a tendency for weak
blood vessels, which could lead to the development of aneurysms, the Brain Aneurysm
Foundation says.
Age can play a role, too.
Most brain aneurysms develop over time
and are likely to be the result of wear and tear
on the arteries, and they're most prevalent in
people ages 35 to 60, according to the Brain

Aneurysm Foundation. (That wasn't the case
with Clarke, though. She was in her 20s when
doctors diagnosed and treated her aneurysms.)
Other risk factors include smoking, having
high blood pressure, using drugs (especially
cocaine), using excessive amounts of alcohol,
having severe head trauma, being a woman
and being a person of color.
And if you have one brain aneurysm, there
is a chance you'll have others. Clarke, for
example, is among the estimated 20 percent
of people diagnosed with a brain aneurysm
who have more than one.

Diagnosis and Treatment

Doctors can diagnose brain aneurysms with
imaging tests such as a CT scan, an MRI and
an MRA (a type of MRI for blood vessels).
Unruptured aneurysms often are discovered
during scans for other medical issues.
Once a brain aneurysm is diagnosed, there
are several treatment options: watching and
waiting, when the aneurysm isn't ruptured and
doctors opt to hold off on surgery while keeping close watch; clipping, a surgical procedure
where a section of the skull is temporarily
removed and a metal clip is attached to the
base of the aneurysm so blood can't enter it;

Vim & Vigor - Spring 2020 - Community Healthcare System

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