When Jamie Foxx experienced “a bad headache,” on April 11, 2023, he visited a doctor who didn’t take his symptoms seriously, giving him a shot of cortisone and sending him on his way, he shared during his stand-up special “Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was…”
“I don’t know if you can do Yelps for doctors,” he said in his special. “That’s half a star.”
Luckily, Foxx’s sister, Deidra Dixon, knew something was wrong with her brother and took him to another hospital. There he received emergency surgery for what turned out to be an aneurysm that led to a stroke.
Brain aneurysms are common, TODAY.com previously reported, and many are harmless. However, ones that rupture and bleed, like the one Foxx had, are medical emergencies that require immediate surgery. Bleeding in the brain, also called intracranial hemorrhage, is considered a stroke, the Cleveland Clinic notes. The blood that collects in the brain makes it difficult for oxygen to reach the brain.
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According to the Cleveland Clinic symptoms of a ruptured aneurysm include:
- A headache that feels like “the worst headache of (your) life”
- Facial drooping on one side
- Weakness or paralysis on one side of the body
- Trouble speaking
- Blurry vision or difficulty seeing
“If those come with a very sudden onset, and in particular, if they come with that headache … call 911 and head to the hospital right away,” Dr. M. Shazam Hussain, director of Cleveland Clinic’s cerebrovascular center, told TODAY.com in September 2024.
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Hussain noted that some people hesitate to visit the hospital because of a headache. However skipping medical care can lead to death in 25% of people with ruptured aneurysms. Even survivors face life-altering changes with about one-third of survivors experiencing severe disability, past TODAY.com reporting says.
“We heard the story too often where someone had a really bad headache … and didn’t have any other symptoms … and unfortunately they wait because they think, ‘Oh, maybe it’s just a bad headache, a bad migraine,” Hussain said. “Then a day or two later, the aneurysm fully ruptures, you have the mask of bleeding around the brain, and it can be quite devastating.”
In Foxx’s case, his sister’s determination likely made a difference in his outcome.
“My sister … said that something’s wrong with my brother,” Foxx said. “They said she drove around Atlanta sort of aimlessly. She didn’t really know where the hospitals was, but as she was driving around she came upon Piedmont hospital.”
Her instinct about Foxx was right. The doctor at this hospital who evaluated him gave Dixon “some horrible news.”
“He said, ‘He’s having a brain bleed that’s led to a stroke, and if I don’t go in his head right now, we’re going to lose him,’” Foxx said.
While surgery stabilized Foxx, doctors couldn’t locate where the bleeding had started in his brain. Still, they felt Foxx would improve and told Dixon: “He may be able to make a full recovery, but it’s going to be the worst year of his life,” Foxx said.
Still, it’s unclear why Foxx experienced the brain bleeding and stroke.
“It is a mystery,” he said. “We still don’t know exactly what happened to me.”
In some cases, it can be unclear why someone might experience a brain aneurysm. People at risk for them include:
- Those with a family history of aneurysms that include parents or siblings with one
- Those who have health conditions, such as Marfan syndrome or arteriovenous malformations
- Young women
- Those with poorly controlled high blood pressure
- Those who smoke
- Elderly men
Foxx said he has no memory of this experience only remembering waking up 20 days later in a wheelchair on his way to rehabilitation in Chicago.
“Your life doesn’t flash before your face,” Foxx said. “It’s kind of oddly peaceful.”
This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:
