Dr. Evan Cohn studied radiology at the University of Virginia Health System. Years later, his life was saved by the UVA radiologists that helped train him. Learn more about Dr. Cohn’s SAH experience and recovery, and read the comments to hear about other people’s SAH journeys. You can share your experience by scrolling to the very bottom of the page and entering your comment in the comment box.

An Update from Dr. Cohn, 9/1/21: Scroll to the bottom of the article to read about how Dr. Cohn is doing nearly six years after his subarachnoid hemorrhage.

Reposted from an original article published in 2017.

Dr. Evan Cohn and his wife Amy at The Homestead Resort

In October 2015, Evan Cohn and his wife Amy were on vacation at The Homestead Resort in Hot Springs, VA. They took a selfie showing wide smiles and a beautiful Virginia landscape in the background.

One hour later, Dr. Cohn began suffering from a severe headache, nausea, and sweating. Within 15 minutes of these symptoms, he was on his way to the Bath County Emergency Room.

A CT of the head showed a subarachnoid hemorrhage (bleeding between the two membranes that surround the brain), and staff immediately prepared him for a helicopter ride to UVA Health’s main hospital in Charlottesville.

An Incredible Series of Events

As a physician, Dr. Cohn knew his condition was serious. From 1993-1998, he had studied at UVA Radiology and Medical Imaging, completing his residency and musculoskeletal fellowship. When he finished the program, he began work at the Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas in Dallas, Texas.

The series of events was incredible. Dr. Cohn happened to be vacationing in Virginia and was sent to the very hospital where he had studied to become a radiologist. He still knew other radiologists who worked there. On his was to UVA, he texted Dr. Mark Anderson, one UVA radiologist he knew from his residency days.

Dr. Cohn’s text to Dr. Mark Anderson, radiologist at UVA

Dr. Anderson called and told him that Dr. Lee Jensen and Dr. Avery Evans, both neurointerventional radiologists, were at the hospital and were ready for him. “It was a comfort to me to know I was going to UVA and that I was in very good hands,” said Dr. Cohn. “Dr. Jensen and Dr. Evans were both there when I was a resident and they are excellent physicians.”

After this, he remembers a nurse asking to pray with him and then waiting for the helicopter to take off, wondering if he would ever see his family again. After that, his memory is blank. He doesn’t remember the two weeks he spent at the UVA Hospital, the anxiety that his wife and daughters endured, or the doctors and nurses who cared for him during his stay.

Recovery and a New Normal

The time following his release from the hospital was difficult. In November of 2015, a month after the hemorrhage, he started attending a year-long rehabilitation program for 6.5 hours a day. He supplemented the rehab with his own efforts to relearn Spanish and by playing games like Rummikub as well as brain games on his phone and computer.

Today, Dr. Cohn says he has a new normal. He gets fatigued easily and doesn’t remember details well. He still gets sporadic headaches. He’s had to adjust his life habits. But since the beginning, his family has surrounded him with incredible support and love.

While Dr. Cohn has always been a positive person with a positive outlook on life, this life-changing event strengthened this trait of his. “I’m lucky to be alive,” he said. “I found out later that 50% of people with the same diagnosis don’t make it.” The hemorrhage made him realize that he doesn’t know the end of his story–no one does. “You don’t know what’s going to happen on any given day, and you should enjoy every day to the fullest,” he said. “Now, every night I go through what I am satisfied with, what I’ve enjoyed, what I’m thankful for, and what I am hopeful for that day.”

To those who have experienced a subarachnoid hemorrhage, Dr. Cohn encourages them: “What you’re going through is normal. Recovery is long and hard. Most importantly, it’s individual.”

Dr. Cohn kept going back to his family and how incredible they are. “It’s been a definite change for everybody,” he said. “I appreciate my family and am so thankful for them. Amy, his wife, chimed in and said, “It’s a good lesson to love your family and appreciate them while they’re here.” Dr. Cohn agreed, “I feel grateful everyday. I have realized the preciousness of life.”

September 2021: An Update from Dr. Evan Cohn

Evan Cohn spoke with us in the summer of 2021 to give us an update about his life six years after a subarachnoid hemorrhage. He’s pleased that his original article has resonated with so many people. “My hope is that sharing what I went through and what has helped me can help others,” he says. “And I’m very glad that the comment section has been a place for people to connect and see that they are not alone.”

Evan Cohn’s life looks very different than it did six years ago. Staying healthy, functional and present requires daily, ongoing effort from him and his family. That starts with simple things, like getting enough rest every night, or writing everything down–appointments, tasks, lists–to help him remember to do them.

Dr. Cohn had to leave his medical practice as a radiologist because of continued fatigue and cognitive issues after his subarachnoid hemorrhage. Physicians are instructed to ‘Do No Harm,’ and he knew that mistakes he would make in his work interpreting medical images could be deadly for his patients.

But not being released to go back to work as a physician was more impactful than just giving up a job: it meant letting go of his identity as a physician. That required a broader acceptance of what his life is now, versus what he imagined for himself before his hemorrhage.

And just as letting go of his identity as a physician was hard, so too was accepting a new identity as a survivor. He struggles with knowing exactly how to talk about it and share without overdoing it.

Making Changes to Make Life Work

Today, Evan continues to experience fatigue, headaches, memory and concentration issues, and sleep disturbances. He can no longer multi-task and has to focus on one thing at a time.

Because it takes him longer to process conversation than most people, he has a hard time participating in groups. If he goes out to dinner with friends, for example, he and his wife, Amy, have worked out a system where she pauses before answering a question addressed to both of them. That gives Evan time to answer if he wants to; otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to answer quickly enough.

When it comes to tasks and chores, he has developed rituals to help him remember to complete them. For example, if he empties the dishwasher, he immediately puts soap in it when it’s empty. Otherwise, he would forget and run it later without putting in the soap.

He has similar ways of reminding himself to take his medication or remember appointments. For anything related to an appointment or a task that must be done at a specific time, he adds them to his phone calendar with an alarm to make sure he doesn’t forget.

No matter what happens in a day, Evan tries to keep his challenges and mistakes in perspective. “A patient in rehab with me used to ask herself the question ‘Are my mistakes deadly? Are they fatal?’” he reflects. “If the answer is no, then while you don’t like making them, you need to keep it in perspective.”

The Challenge of Invisible Disease

“So many people struggle with invisible diseases and conditions,” Dr. Cohn points out. “A person who has a broken leg is easy to see. But psychiatric diseases, cancer, brain injuries – in those cases, you don’t know what people are going through. Their struggles might not leave a visible mark.”

The invisibility of what Dr. Cohn experiences is an extra challenge. “I may look normal,” he says, “but you don’t see the amount of work that it takes me to look that way.”

Friends and acquaintances are well-intentioned and have been a tremendous source of support and comfort over the past six years. But sometimes they don’t understand what is helpful for someone in Dr. Cohn’s shoes to hear.

“As a brain injury survivor, we don’t want to hear ‘We all forget things,’” he says. “It makes you have to recall all the worst mistakes you’ve made. This isn’t normal aging. I hear them wanting to connect, but it’s not the same thing.”

Instead, he finds simple gestures, like adding him to prayer lists, lighting a candle, or offering thoughts and prayers, most impactful. “I used to think those things were kind of cheesy, but now I feel they are very nice things to say,” he says. “Especially when I know that the person really means it.”

People understanding his limitations and mistakes makes a huge difference, as is knowing that people are glad to have him around and don’t need him to be perfect. If someone wants to help, he has found more specific and direct questions most helpful. “‘I’m coming over, what night can I bring you dinner?’ is a more helpful question than ‘Let me know how I can help’” he says.

How Are You Doing Today?

A quote from Facebook CFO Sheryl Sandberg has stuck in Evan’s mind in the years since his hemorrhage. After the sudden death of her husband in 2015, Sheryl found the standard question people would ask, “How are you?”, to be difficult to answer. She knows they meant well. But saying good or fine felt like a lie: after all, she was grieving a tremendous loss.

In her book, Option B, she suggests changing the question slightly, to “How are you doing today?” She sees this as a way to acknowledge the challenges that someone is facing. But it also acknowledges that they are getting through those challenges, day by day. And it reminds them to take things one day at a time. That has been immensely helpful for Dr. Cohn.

The Love of Family

Above all, Dr. Cohn attributes his continued well-being to the love, support and understanding of his family – his wife and his daughters.

“My daughters have become much more patient and understanding of me,” he says. “They know that my memory isn’t what it used to be and that I have cognitive deficits.”

“My wife has been incredible,” he says. “She’s patient, working together with me to understand and not pointing out my mistakes all the time. She’s so understanding and supportive.”

Evan could see a spouse in her shoes being frustrated with him for needing extra help and making mistakes. But that’s not how Amy feels. “The way I see it, I am lucky to have him here, next to me,” she says.

Dr. Cohn echoes that sentiment. His final takeaway for anyone is his shoes, or anyone with a family member who experienced what he did, is simple.

“Live life to the fullest.”

Since 2017, hundreds of users have shared their own experience with subarachnoid hemorrhages in the original post’s comment section. Click here to read their stories.