Ashley Jorgensen was finishing a 600-meter circuit on a rowing machine at The Cliffs at Glassy Wellness Center near the Glassy Mountain community when she felt something rise up her neck, followed by a pop. The 40-year-old kept rowing. Minutes later, during a standing core exercise, she collapsed.
“I feel it come up my neck,” Jorgensen said, “and then I felt this pop,” according to FOX Carolina News. She didn't pass out, didn't have a droopy face, and didn't have slurred speech — none of the classic stroke signs. But a nurse nearby recognized that something was seriously wrong, and paramedics rushed her to the emergency room at Prisma Health in Greenville.
A scan confirmed it: Jorgensen had suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm, causing a hemorrhagic stroke. She was rushed into emergency surgery. A brain aneurysm is a weak spot on a blood vessel, and when it ruptures, blood spills into the brain — typically triggering what's described as the worst headache of a person's life. Jorgensen's husband insisted she needed an immediate scan, a decision that likely bought her crucial time.
A Less Invasive Fix for a Life-Threatening Problem
Rather than open brain surgery, doctors used an endovascular procedure — threading a catheter through a blood vessel to reach the ruptured site. “Using coils, which are little mesh balls,” said Dr. Chip Wigington, that approach “significantly reduces the risk that that weak spot is going to bleed again.” Prisma Health's practice uses this less invasive, catheter-based approach in more than 90% of its aneurysm cases, per the same report. Wigington also said faster treatment improves outcomes for patients overall.
Doctors discovered a second, smaller aneurysm while treating Jorgensen. They aren't operating on it, but they're monitoring it closely with regular scans. She spent 10 days in the hospital in total, seven of them in the intensive care unit.
No Warning Signs Before the Rupture
What makes Jorgensen's case unsettling is what was absent beforehand. She had no family history of aneurysms, no prior symptoms, and was — by her own account — in the best shape of her life. Most brain aneurysms cause no symptoms at all until they rupture, which is part of what makes them so hard to catch in advance.
Research cited in the same report shows brain aneurysms are more common in women, though doctors don't fully understand why. Smoking is clearly linked to both aneurysm growth and rupture, doctors say, and they identify a sudden, severe headache unlike any a person has had before as a key warning sign to watch for.
Back to Teaching, With New Limits
Nine months after the rupture, Jorgensen is back teaching fitness classes, though she's had to relearn her limits. She still gets occasional headaches and fatigue. Jorgensen has said she can sometimes sense an approaching storm based on pressure changes, and she recommends that women learn their family medical history as a precaution.
For people with two or more immediate family members diagnosed with a brain aneurysm, screening is recommended starting at age 20. Research published in the journal Stroke found that among people with at least two first-degree relatives who had aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage, the estimated risk of discovering a new aneurysm rises over time — from ahajournals.org's research, 2% to 12% at five years, 4% to 28% at 10 years, and 7% to 40% at 15 years. The same research identified female sex, older age, and a prior intracranial aneurysm or hemorrhage as predictors of finding a new one during follow-up screening. People with two or more affected first-degree relatives face an estimated lifetime risk of aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage of up to 25%, according to that research.
Nationally, about 10 to 14 people per 100,000 experience a subarachnoid hemorrhage each year in the United States, per the Cleveland Clinic. Separate research published in Stroke, examining a three-year case-crossover study of 250 patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage, found vigorous physical exercise was associated with a 2.4-fold increased risk of rupture, with a population-attributable risk of 7.9% in that study. Researchers identified eight activities tied to increased rupture risk overall, including vigorous exercise, sexual intercourse, anger, and straining during defecation, proposing that each may trigger a sudden, short spike in blood pressure.
Doctors note that outcomes after an aneurysm ruptures split roughly into thirds: about a third of people survive relatively intact, a third are permanently disabled, and a third don't survive. Jorgensen's recovery places her among those who went on to resume much of their normal life, even as she continues adjusting to the lingering headaches and fatigue that followed her ordeal at the Glassy Mountain gym.
