'Terrible' Headaches Reveal Brain Aneurysm In Highland Park Woman

HIGHLAND PARK, NJ — The following is a press release submitted from RWJBarnabas Health, as May was National Stroke Awareness Month.

When Ana Mendez started having headaches in 2022, she thought it was due to the tremendous amount of stress she was under at work and at home, as she's a single mother of two teenagers and a seven-year-old.

Mendez and her children live in Highland Park. She works right across the river, as a waitress at the Frog & the Peach, a beloved high-end restaurant in New Brunswick.

But the headaches grew stronger and were more frequent. Mendez started feeling intense pressure in her right eye.

“(The eye) was blinking too much,” she explained in the press release. “My neck also started feeling stiff. I would take Tylenol and two or three Naproxens, but the headaches wouldn’t go away.”

In 2024, her symptoms worsened to the point where she found it difficult to speak during her headaches.

“I would become confused and couldn’t put my thoughts together,” she said.

Then came May 5, 2024. She was at work at the restaurant. While trying to count money in the register and the servers’ tips during closing, she lost her balance, couldn't walk or talk and became nauseous. She could only count to three.

She was rushed to the ER at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick.

"The nurse was asking me questions and my head just felt so heavy, and my neck was weak," she recalled. “I was trying to concentrate, but I started throwing up.”

Doctors ordered CT and an MRI scan of her brain; they revealed a cranial aneurysm, which is a blood clot in her brain. Fortunately, it had not ruptured. She was treated by neurosurgeon Dr. Hai Sun and his team at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

While some smaller brain aneurysms can be monitored and do not require surgery, Dr. Sun said that in some cases, if an aneurysm is left untreated, “there is a sizable risk of rupture," which means a stroke and bleeding in the brain.

“One third of the patients die before reaching the hospital or receiving any type of medical intervention,” Dr. Sun said. “Of the two third who survive, half of them have permanent neurological damage and disabilities. Only one third experience a good outcome and regain independence.”

Mendez ended up undergoing an eight-hour brain surgery from Dr. Sun at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital.

It saved her life.

According to Dr. Sun, her prognosis is “very good.”

“She has no obvious risk factors (for recurrence) such as smoking or high blood pressure,” he said. “Patients do very well and can return to their normal living after the recovery from the surgery if an aneurysm is treated before it ruptures.”

RWJBarnabas Health wants the public to know that terrible headaches can often indicate a much more serious problem, and being treated by a doctor can be critical.