Lee Broadway was planning details for her upcoming 42nd birthday with her husband, Eric, in their home in Matthews, North Carolina. Just a couple of hours after Eric left for work, Lee sent a message to Eric asking him to come home as soon as possible because she was suffering from what she described as the worst headache of her life.
Eric, 43 years old, told People, “I raced home and took her to the ER. I knew this couldn’t be good because I’ve seen her deal with pain before.” Due to hereditary migraines, Lee had been experiencing these kinds of headaches since she was only eight years old. But Eric knew that this incident was on a different level.
Two days later, Lee died at Novant Health Presbyterian Medical Center because of a brain aneurysm.
According to the Mayo Clinic, migraines and brain aneurysms share similar signs and symptoms even though the two conditions are not necessarily related to one another. Usually, when a person said that the headache they were currently experiencing was the “worst headache” ever, that’s what having a brain aneurysm felt like.
Eric and Lee first met when they were in middle school. He said, “I kept on setting her up with my friends in high school but then I realized I wanted her.”
When Lee was only 18 years old, she carried their first child, Adair, who just graduated from the Art Institute of Charlotte at the age of 22 years old.
Eric, who owns a tile installation company, said, “Becoming a mom was the best thing to happen to her. She was an awesome mom. She fell right into it and found something she loved.” Then, the couple added more members to their family: Averi, Alex, and Adrien.
Eric continued, “She didn’t want to stop until we had a boy and we were able to make that happen. We started young so there were some tough times, but we figured it out. We were happy.
“Adair was in Key West and the other three were with their grandparents in the mountains. So, on my way to the hospital, I called my mother-in-law to let her know her daughter was in the hospital.”
Watching his wife suffer from the most excruciating pain was very difficult for him to witness.
Eric said, “She was begging to have the pain go away. As a husband, you want to protect your wife and help her, but there was nothing I could do.”
At first, Eric was told by the doctors that Lee’s aneurysm was only ranked Grade 2 out of 5 and that they were able to fix the problem after one procedure. Then, two hours later, while they were waiting for her, the doctor came out and informed that there had been a complication.
Ten hours later, Eric said, “She took us all in and all I heard was, ‘There is nothing we can for her.’ I ran out and lost it.” Lee was considered brain dead.
The Broadway family is now asking for donations to covered the remaining medical expenses.
