An active competitor in marathons, triathlons and Ironman races, Laura Brezin Kern did not expect to suffer from a stroke and have a ruptured brain aneurysm at 42.
Brezin Kern, a La Cañada Flintridge resident with a long career at Disney, started running with the Disney Tri Team and trained for her first triathlon in 2009.
“Prior to March 2022, I had completed 12 half Ironman races, 12 half marathons, one full Ironman, and four full marathons,” Brezin Kern told the Outlook Valley Sun.
It was a typical morning for Brezin Kern in March 2022, who started the day by working out while her husband walked the dogs. But, toward the end of her workout, she felt dizzy and passed out.
“When I woke up, I was in a pool of sweat and I had the worst headache of my life,” said Brezin Kern, who had not had a stroke before. “I was extremely disoriented. I couldn’t get off the floor really and immediately went into survival mode as I knew something was gravely wrong and I needed to call for help.”
Only owning her Apple watch for three months, Brezin Kern didn’t know the lifesaving aspects of the device. She didn’t have her phone near, so she called out to Siri to text her husband.
“It came out incomprehensible due to my speech issues, so I then asked Siri to call him,” she said. “He immediately realized due to my irregular speech that something was wrong and told me to hang up and call 911.”
Instead of taking her to Huntington Hospital where she usually goes, her husband instructed the ambulance to take her to the nearest hospital, USC Verdugo Hills.
“Once the team at USC Verdugo Hills determined that I’d had bleeding in the brain, they arranged for me to transfer to the neuro-ICU at Keck Hospital of USC,” said Brezin Kern. “They admitted me that day, and the following morning I had an endovascular non-invasive coiling procedure to fill the aneurysm and restore normal blood flow to my internal carotid artery.”
The medical team was not able to determine why Brezin Kern had a brain aneurysm in the first place or what caused it to rupture.
To this day, Brezin Kern said she is lucky to have been at USC Keck, not only to get her back on her feet after recovery, but also to start running and competing.
“Toward the end of my 11-day hospital stay, the L.A. Marathon was approaching, and I had the courage to ask my neurologist when I could feasibly think about running another marathon,” said Brezin Kern, who was advised not to run that year.
Even though she was not able to run the 2022 marathon, she was connected to a former patient, Kathy Nguyen, who returns to Los Angeles every year to run the event with her neurosurgeon Dr. Jonathan Russin.
“This was music to my ears, because even though I had the ambition to return to endurance sports, I was overwhelmed at the notion of starting from ‘zero’ and dealing with the new hurdle of worrying about my aneurysm re-rupturing,” said Brezin Kern.
After her first conversation with Nguyen, Brezin Kern was able to convince her to return to L.A., “to run the L.A. Marathon with me as my comeback race.”
“When I left the hospital, I had zero restrictions – I didn’t need further speech, occupational or physical therapy, and they even said I could drive a car,” said Brezin Kern. “I was incredibly weak and still suffering from headaches, which was normal as part of recovery, but ultimately — unlike many stroke survivors — I would not have any lasting deficits.”
After getting a bit better she sought out support groups like that of WeRunWithYou, a nonprofit organization founded by Nguyen and her husband, with a mission to improve the lives people suffering from brain injury and disease by funding research to improve patient outcomes, raising awareness, and providing support for survivors and their families.
“By contrast, my biggest hurdle was overcoming the trauma of my stroke and learning not to live in fear that my aneurysm would re-rupture,” said Brezin Kern. “I gravitated toward WeRunWithYou in large part because I saw so much of myself in Kathy” who also did triathlons and marathons and was able to do the L.A. Marathon a year after her aneurysm ruptured.
When she was ready, Nguyen started Brezin Kern off on a walk/run program to slowly build up her strength.
“Giving Laura hope that she can get back to endurance sports and ‘planting’ ideas for her to work toward was rewarding,” said Nguyen. “I think when you’re talking to someone who has been in your shoes, in Laura’s case, experienced a brain aneurysm, in a coma for a week, had a rare and risky brain surgery, and now is living proof that life can continue, it’s comforting and can give so much hope for the future.”
And when her six-month checkup came around, Brezin Kern’s neurosurgeon told her she likely had been safer than ever before, since she’d probably had the unruptured aneurysm her entire life and now, it was treated. This perspective gave her a lot more confidence in getting back to running.
Keck Medicine of USC Dr. Jonathan Russin has also been a part of Brezin Kern’s journey after her brain aneurysm, and first connected her to Nguyen.
“Throughout her recovery and return to triathlon I would occasionally answer questions about medical restrictions and help manage her expectations,” Russin said. “I then had the opportunity to race with Laura to support her return to Ironman distance racing at Ironman CA.”
Brezin Kern signed up for her second full Ironman race only six months after her aneurysm ruptured.
“My primary goal was simply to finish the race and have a great time, but I felt great on race day, and I beat my previous times in all three disciplines and placed 11th in my age group,” said Brezin Kern. “I had only dreamed of someday qualifying for the women’s Ironman World Championships and was incredibly proud to earn and claim a spot for the 2024 race in Nice, France.”
Since receiving support from WeRunWithYou, Brezin Kern was asked to join the board of the nonprofit.
Brezin Kern told the Outlook Valley Sun that she is mostly back to a normal life.
“I am back to working full-time and training so intensely for triathlons because I love both things, not because I have to,” said Brezin Kern. “Not a day goes by that I don’t think about my aneurysm and how lucky I am, but after completing two follow-up angiograms that showed that the coils are doing their job securing the aneurysm, my follow-up care will now consist of regular MRAs [MRI-like scans].”
She added that there is always the risk that, over time, the coils will shift, and she will require another intervention, but “my understanding is that there are good long-term outcomes for survivors who have made it as far as I have.”
Brezin Kern advises those like her to take one step at a time when things get overwhelming.
“I didn’t think about running a marathon when I was first starting again, but rather about jogging for two minutes at a time,” she said. “I even took this approach in my Ironman, focusing only on running the mile I was in rather than the fact that I had 25, 15, or 5 miles left in the race.”
First published in the December 7 print issue of the Outlook Valley Sun.
