By Alexi Knock, Assistant News Editor
Around 2 a.m. on March 19, freshman Molly Cullen started feeling nauseous and was taken to Nassau University Medical Center where she was informed she would probably die within 24 hours due to a brain aneurysm.
“Within fifteen minutes I had the worst headache of my life,” said Cullen. “I knew I needed to get to the hospital.”
After continuously vomiting, Cullen told her suite mate, Nelly Nickerson, to seek assistance from their resident assistant (RA). Nickerson had to go to the room twice before actually speaking with the RA, Kate Davis, who told her to call public safety because it was late and she had an early class. The girls were distressed because the RA, according to Nickerson, did not aid them.
As of press time, Kate Davis was unable to be reached for comment.
Due to Right to Privacy laws as well as personnel matters, Lynda O’Malley, Associate Dean of Students, could not comment specifically on the incident. “Every night, there is an RA on duty for every complex that can be reached by students. Also, public safety is always available for response,” said O’Malley.
Nickerson immediately called public safety. When the officer arrived about 15 minutes later, he told Cullen it would take longer for an ambulance to get her to the hospital; so instead, he drove her.
“During the car ride I started to have a stroke and slur my words and become incoherent so the officer basically thought I was just drunk,” said Cullen. Cullen told the officer she was not drunk, but eventually, because of her condition, she could not talk at all.
“With slurred speech and stuff like that, [asking if the student is drunk is] a common question they ask to protect a person’s life,” said John O’Malley, Director of Public Safety.
Cullen repeatedly asked the officer to take her to Winthrop Hospital, but she was instead admitted to Nassau University Medical Center.
“Our procedure, as is the state of New York which our offices are certified by, is to take someone to the nearest hospital [Nassau University Medical Center] for any situation that can turn into an emergency,” said John O’Malley. “Even if a person went by ambulance, if he or she asked to go to Winthrop in an emergency situation, they would not have taken her either.”
When Cullen arrived at the hospital, due to her condition, she was unable to fill out paperwork.
“They put me in pediatrics where I sat for two hours in severe pain,” said Cullen. “I started to lose feeling in my face and have more stroke symptoms”
Cullen said she was rushed to the triage room where a nurse asked her procedural questions.
“When [the nurse] asked why I wasn’t answering questions right away I said my head hurt and he said that I had to go into the pediatrics department to rest,” said Cullen.
In pediatrics, Cullen continued to vomit.
“Everyone [at Nassau University Medical Center] thought I was drunk and that there was no way I could’ve been having a stroke,” said Cullen. “The saline drip they put me on did nothing and the lack of anti nausea medicine made my pain factor worse.”
After about two hours laying in pediatrics, Cullen told a nurse that she needed tests run on her head because there was something severely wrong. Cullen was then taken to get a CAT scan.
“When I got out of the machine I said, ‘I think I’m going to be sick,'” said Cullen. “The man running the test said ‘you already are sick’ and left the room.”
Soon after the man left, Cullen threw up. Since she was in too much pain to sit up, she vomited all over the floor and her arm.
“The man walked back in and said, ‘ew’ and walked back out of the room,” said Cullen.
After being wheeled to pediatrics, a doctor explained that her brain was bleeding and she probably wasn’t going to make it through the rest of the day, according to Cullen.
“One of [the nurses] said ‘honey, if you make it out of this alive, call me!'” said Cullen.
Shelley Lotenberg, the spokeswoman for Nassau University Medical Center, said that due to medical confidentiality, she could not comment on Cullen’s case.
“There isn’t any formal procedure relative to Hofstra students and we would be open to exploring opportunities for discussing potential models of how Hofstra and NuHealth could collaborate further,” said Lotenberg.
Cullen was then taken by ambulance to North Shore Long Island Jewish Hospital. There, she was told she needed two surgeries that day. The first surgery began 11 hours after Cullen’s initial symptoms. About 30 minutes after the first procedure, Cullen had to undergo a three-hour brain surgery.
“Because the surgeons were used to people over 55 who had slightly shrunken brains, it took over five hours for my surgery,” said Cullen.
It was expected that Cullen would be able to talk in 12 hours and possibly regain function in some of her fingers in 15 hours.
“I spent nine days in the ICU of neurosurgery at North Shore,” said Cullen.
After two weeks out of school, she returned Monday with no signs of her aneurysm besides a scar across her forehead.
“The doctors told me the chances I would make such a complete and rapid recovery like this was one in 10 million,” said Cullen. “Forty percent of people with the same aneurysm would’ve died as soon as it burst, so I was incredibly lucky.”

Molly Cullen recently returned to the University after suffering a brain aneurysm in her dorm room. (Alexi Knock/The Chronicle)