When that happens, the brain stem stops working, the heart stops, breathing ceases, and you're dead. The bleeding continues until the pressure inside the skull is so great that the brain is forced downward through the hole at the base of the skull (the foramen magnum). When it gets thin enough, it bursts, and blood pours out under high pressure. Well, it's a stretching/bulging/thinning of the arterial wall, is the pathophysiology. What's going on when you have a cerebral aneurysm, anyhow? If everyone with two weeks of persistent headache that was worse with coughing went in for an exam and cerebral angiography, the country would come to a halt and be bankrupt. Most headaches go away on their own, so why bother? Should Laura Branigan have gone in to see someone? So he waited to wake up dead one day, and lo and behold, the headaches went away a few months ago. We know what can happen when the rock starts to tumble down the hill. He never went in, because, like me, he's petrified of doctors and medical work-ups. So if even I, a gas-passer, know that he should've gone to see someone about two years ago, you'd thing he'd have come to a similar conclusion himself, right? Making things even more interesting: he's a board-certified, practicing clinical neurologist, with training under one of the greatest diagnosticians ever in the field. My best friend was troubled by a fierce, persistent headache for years it got worse when he coughed, forcing him to bend over in agony.Ĭomplicating things: he has high blood pressure, and is on medication for it. Her brother Mark said she had complained of a headache for about two weeks before she died, but had not sought medical attention. The Grammy-nominated pop star, famous for her 1982 platinum hit "Gloria," died in her sleep last Thursday night at her home in Quogue, New York.