On the hit television show Castle, actress Tamala Jones plays the role of Lanie Parish, a smart, sarcastic medical examiner who solves some of New York City's most heinous murders by unraveling complex medical mysteries.

In real life, Jones is committed to eradicating a different kind of villain: brain aneurysms. According to the Brain Aneurysm Foundation, an estimated 6 million people in the United States live with an unruptured brain aneurysm, which is a bulging, weak area on the artery wall that supplies blood to the brain. In addition, approximately 8 out of 100,000 people have a brain aneurysm that ruptures each year, causing bleeding in the brain.

Jones was only 23 when she experienced a ruptured brain aneurysm in 1998, but she remembers the event vividly.

"I woke up one morning with a massive headache, in more pain than I had ever felt, and I had no balance when I got out of bed," Jones recalls. "I felt the urge to use the restroom, and I remember walking on my tiptoes to get to the bathroom and then being unable to urinate once I got there."

Jones collapsed on the floor. After pulling herself upright, she realized she needed medical attention. Although she was scheduled to continue filming the WB television sitcom For Your Love that day, Jones called her boss to report that she was feeling ill and wouldn't be coming to work.

"I was told it was the last day of filming and that I had to come in," Jones says. "They said a doctor on the set could evaluate me once I came to work."

Lucky to Be Alive

In retrospect, the actress wishes she had gone directly to the hospital, she says. Jones never saw a doctor on the set, and as the day progressed, she only felt worse.

"My right arm was bent and I was unable to move the right side of my body," Jones recalls. "On set, they kept throwing purses and jackets over my arm to cover it. No one seemed to think my condition was serious, maybe because of my age. One co-worker even suggested I might have carpal tunnel syndrome."

After work, a colleague drove her to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where a neurologist in the emergency department performed brain scans—magnetic resonance and computed tomography—and determined that Jones had experienced subarachnoid hemorrhage, or bleeding in the area between the brain and the thin tissues that cover the brain. The cause of the hemorrhage was a burst aneurysm. (Other causes of subarachnoid hemorrhage include head injury, use of blood thinners, and arteriovenous malformation, an abnormal connection between the arteries and veins in the brain that usually forms before birth.)

"I had an aneurysm the size of a 50-cent piece on the left side of my brain," Jones says. "The doctor said I was lucky to even be alive."

According to the American Stroke Association, once an aneurysm bleeds, the chance of death is 30 to 40 percent, and the chance of moderate to severe brain damage is 20 to 35 percent—even if the aneurysm is treated.

While Jones had a cerebral aneurysm (occurring in the brain), aneurysms can also occur in the aorta (the major artery from the heart), the leg, and other areas.

Often Undetected

"Aneurysms often go undetected because they can have no symptoms until they rupture and bleed," says Howard Kirshner, MD, professor and vice chairman of the department of neurology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, director of the Vanderbilt Stroke Center in Nashville, TN, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology (FAAN). "When that happens, people often experience a sudden and severe headache that they often describe as a thunderclap headache or the worst headache of their life."

In the two weeks leading up to her aneurysm rupturing, Jones remembers having a lingering headache that didn't respond to over-the-counter pain medications.

"At the time, I thought I was suffering from sinus headaches because we have a lot of sinus issues in my family," Jones says. "Looking back, I should have seen my doctor then, because the headaches were persistent and felt as if someone were stretching a rubber band around my head and pulling it tighter every day. Even Tylenol didn't help."

Unruptured brain aneurysms are typically small in size (less than half an inch in diameter) and usually cause no symptoms. But larger unruptured aneurysms can occasionally press on the brain or the nerves stemming out of the brain and may result in various neurologic symptoms, according to Dr. Kirshner.

"Anyone who experiences a sudden and severe headache or a persistent localized headache that lasts for several days and doesn't respond to over-the-counter medications should seek immediate medical care," he says.

Other symptoms that can occur with a ruptured aneurysm or an unruptured aneurysm that is pressing on the brain include nausea and vomiting, a stiff neck, difficulty speaking, sudden blurred or double vision, sudden muscle weakness, trouble walking, and seizures.

Treatment and Recovery

"Prompt and accurate diagnosis of a ruptured aneurysm is critical and can save a patient's life," Dr. Kirshner says. "Surgery may be performed to clip the ruptured aneurysm and reduce the risk of repeated episodes of bleeding. Other measures may include bed rest, drug therapy, blood pressure control, and fluids."

When surgery is required, aneurysms are either surgically clipped or essentially bricked over by stuffing and stacking catheter-delivered coils one at a time into the aneurysm.

For Jones, who experienced seizures while in the hospital, recovery took several months. An MRI revealed she had hemorrhaged on the right side of her brain, which left her paralyzed on that side. Her doctor told her that once the blood dried, she would regain function on the right side of her body.

"My mom and grandmother, Roxanne and Laverne Jones, took care of me and helped nurse me back to health," Jones says. "The first few days were pretty much a blur—my mom and grandma would wake me up to feed me and bathe me. It took a full three months before I got my full strength back and was able to work again."

From Survivor to Advocate

Today, 16 years after being diagnosed with a ruptured brain aneurysm, Jones has signed on to become the national spokesperson for the Brain Aneurysm Foundation. She hopes to use her personal experience to raise awareness of aneurysms as well as funding for additional research.

"I didn't go public with my story for many years because I didn't want to show weakness or vulnerability, especially as I was trying to succeed as an actress," Jones says. "Yet after hearing many stories of young people suffering from a brain aneurysm and dying, I wanted to share my story."

Jones learned that brain aneurysms can have a genetic link and discovered, after talking with her mom, that her family had a history of brain aneurysms.

She also learned that people of all ages suffer aneurysms. Although they are more common in middle age, they can also occur in teenagers and senior citizens.

"Our recommendation is for any individual who has two or more relatives (such as a mother, father, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, grandparent, or cousins) with a brain aneurysm to be screened for aneurysms starting in their twenties and then every 5 to 10 years thereafter," says Christine Buckley, executive director of the Brain Aneurysm Foundation. 

Life After Aneurysm

Today, Jones is feeling great and says the only lasting side effect of her aneurysm is anxiety, which she manages by reducing stress and taking better care of herself.

"Anxiety is a common after-effect in patients who have experienced a ruptured aneurysm or stroke," says Dr. Kirshner. "Doctors can confirm that post-stroke symptoms are anxiety-related and help patients to obtain treatment through medications and psychotherapy."

At the time of her aneurysm, Jones was working on three television shows and was also shooting movies.

"I wasn't sleeping or eating properly. I was overworked," she says. "I think in some ways my experience was a wake-up call to take better care of myself."

Jones now makes her health a priority by getting a full physical every year, avoiding junk food, and taking on only as much work as she can handle.

Jones, who loves fashion, is also indulging her creativity by working on a line of swimwear that will debut next year; a portion of the proceeds will go to brain aneurysm research. In addition to her work on season seven of Castle, Jones just completed work on two movies: The Box, a film about a house slave and a field slave, set in 1840, that also features her Castle co-star Jon Huertas, and Shaker Pointe, a modern retelling of Hamlet co-starring Malcolm Jamal-Warner and Corbin Bleu.

She also hopes that working with the Brain Aneurysm Foundation and talking about her own experience will help to raise funding and awareness about the condition.

"If I can help one person recognize the symptoms of a brain aneurysm and get help, then I will have made a difference," she says.

Questions to Ask Your Doctor 

Do I need to be screened?

"Cerebral aneurysms are generally not genetic, and in most cases it's not necessary to have family members screened," says Christine Buckley, executive director of the Brain Aneurysm Foundation. "In cases where there is a significant family history of aneurysms—experienced, for example, by two or more family members, such as a mother, father, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, grandparents, or cousins—we recommend that that all family members consult their physicians about receiving non-invasive screenings, such as a magnetic resonance angiogram or a computed tomography angiogram," starting in their twenties and then every five to 10 years thereafter.

I've had one aneurysm. Will I get another?

"If you are a heavy smoker and continue smoking after having a ruptured aneurysm, it is very possible," Buckley says. "In addition, if you have polycystic kidney disease, fibromuscular dysplasia, or any other type of elastic tissue disorder, you may warrant screening throughout your lifetime. Otherwise, it is extremely unlikely you will develop another aneurysm. Patients who are quite young (under 40) may be candidates for follow-up imaging later in life. Please discuss with your physician."

My doctor discovered an aneurysm when I had an MRI. What are my treatment options?

"Options for treatment of an aortic aneurysm include continued observation and intervention. Continued observation is recommended for smaller aneurysms that are asymptomatic," says AAN member Wade S. Smith, MD, PhD. "CT scans are usually done at 6- to 12-month intervals, and if the aneurysm enlarges by more than .5 cm per year or reaches 5.5 cm or greater, intervention is usually recommended."

Yet many brain aneurysms can be traced to other causes, according to AAN member Wade S. Smith, MD, PhD, professor of neurology and director of Neurocritical Care at the University of California, San Francisco.

"Most of the aneurysms that we treat are not related to genetics," says Dr. Smith. "We do know that people who smoke or who have high blood pressure or polycystic kidney disease are at greater risk of developing a brain aneurysm or experiencing a subarachnoid hemorrhage."

In addition, African-Americans are more likely than whites to have a subarachnoid hemorrhage; women over the age of 40 are more likely to develop a brain aneurysm or to experience a subarachnoid hemorrhage, and those who have already had a brain aneurysm are more likely to have another.

Dr. Smith says that researchers are now examining and identifying specific genetic factors that contribute to brain aneurysms.

That said, Dr. Smith points out that not all brain aneurysms will rupture. According to the Brain Aneurysm Foundation, approximately 50 to 80 percent of all aneurysms never rupture in the patient's lifetime.

"Many people don't realize they have an aneurysm and live with it," Dr. Smith says.