Supporting Jenn's Aneurysm Recovery

If you are here, we already thank you for taking the time to visit and share Jenn's story.

This page will be managed by Jenn's sister Robyn and all donations will go directly to Jenn, Zac, and Kenny.

In the early morning hours of Monday, March 17, Jennifer suddenly suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm. There were no warning signs preceding it. On Friday, we had just returned from a trip to Florida to visit with family and friends, and Jenn and Zac spent the weekend celebrating their 8th anniversary (March 18).

Jenn is a healthy, active 32-year-old who works full-time and is a wonderful mother to her 2-year-old son Kenny. She went to bed as normal with an alarm set to work early the next morning. Zac awoke around 1:00 am to hear her moaning, not really able to verbally respond to him, accompanied by sudden vomiting. He immediately called 911 and Jenn was taken to Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist here in Winston-Salem. Kenny had fortunately already been spending the night with Zac's parents for their anniversary weekend and was not present for any of this.

After considering either an endovascular option (through a catheter in the groin) and opening her skull to repair the bleed, the neurosurgeon informed us all that the latter option would be most effective due to the size and placement of the aneurysm. Expecting to clip the aneurysm when going in, another method of wrapping was ultimately used to close the ruptured area. She was in surgery for approximately 4.5 hours with Dr. John Wilson.

Directly following the operation, Dr. Wilson told us that all had gone according to plan and that he was "encouraged" by how well she did. He let us know that there are a few key complications they will be monitoring for in the days ahead.

By the next day, Jenn was completely surpassing all expectations for recovery in the ICU. Within 24 hours, she was eating, asking for her phone, and out of the bed sitting in a chair. She video chatted with Kenny the very next night and he was so happy to read his favorite Llama Llama book with mama.

We are blown away by her progress so far, but she still has a long road ahead. Jenn is likely to be out of commission for several weeks to months. She has a strong support system here in NC (husband, parents, sister, in-laws) to help with Kenny. We are so thankful to everyone near and far who has already reached out.

For those asking how they can help, any donation and sharing of this page is appreciated.

It is not lost on us that this is not the typical outcome in this type of situation and we are so thankful to be at the point we are right now. Please hug your loved ones a little tighter and don't take any minute you are given for granted.

Updates will be provided here to share Jenn's progress as we move forward. Thank you all.

With love,

The Shapllo and Mathes families