My brain exploded when I sneezed – but it made my dreams come true
A man whose brain “exploded” after he sneezed claims the near-death experience was actually a blessing in disguise — because it inspired him to pursue his dreams.
“So, that was how I came into this whole career, having a really random brain surgery,” Sam Messina, 26, told Jam Press of the catastrophe.
The Illinois entrepreneur is now the successful founder of Moouse Media, which specializes in creating video content for such high-profile brands as Acura.
Messina said he was fascinated by video ever since he was a child and would experiment with a camcorder. However, as childhood dreams often do, his passion faded: He became interested in hockey and he ended up ditching his camera for a pair of ice skates.
Messina later got accepted at the University of Alabama, where he joined the hockey squad and began living the college dream.
Shortly thereafter, however, his halcyon days were derailed by a freak accident in September 2016.
“I was in the middle of thriving in college, like, just doing the whole college thing. [I was] starting my junior year when I was lying in bed and I sneezed,” Messina said. “And when I sneezed, I basically had an aneurysm.”
Indeed, the seemingly innocuous nose function reportedly caused the potentially fatal condition, in which a blood vessel in the brain bursts, per the Mayo Clinic.
“My brain pretty much exploded and the clot came out of my nostrils,” said the horrified university student while describing this cerebrovascular butterfly effect. “It caused me to have a stroke as well, so I passed out and pretty much should have died.”
Before going unconscious, Messina managed to call his mom and girlfriend, who got him out of his apartment and to the hospital.
Doctors diagnosed the hockey player with arteriovenous malformation, a condition that causes a tangle in the blood vessels that connect arteries and veins in the brain.
Messina reportedly had a dormant blood clot that would have ruptured some time in his 20s, but it was triggered prematurely by his sneeze.
Fearing the worst, doctors transferred the patient to another facility to undergo emergency surgery.
“It was terrifying, but I knew if that was what needed doing, I’d have to do it,” described the college student, who dropped out of school so he could undergo the procedure.
Over the next week, the patient underwent a staggering three surgeries to remove the blood clot. Stitching his head back together required a whopping 27 staples.
He then spent a month recovering at home before having the sutures removed.
While Messina was out of the woods medically, he was reportedly struggling to figure out how to get his “life back on track.”
Thankfully, inspiration seemed to come naturally. “I was just a different person after the surgery. All I wanted to do was make videos, shoot videos – anything revolving around that,” the changed man described.
He added that he thought the medical episode would throw his life “off track,” but “in reality, it pushed me to where I needed to be, and that was behind the camera.”
Like the interstellar Big Bang, Messina’s unfortunate ordeal had seemingly gotten the creative juices flowing.
Indeed, the stars seemed to align, as “around the same time, social media started to become a really big thing,” the budding videographer described.
While Messina had always been fascinated by video — often making home movies for his family growing up — he didn’t have a platform until now.
Without hockey or school to distract him, Messina could focus solely on turning his childhood passion into a profession.
He returned to school the next semester with his camera, and shortly thereafter, created his first company, Moouse Media, named after his college moniker, Moose.
The venture was “basically just a content-creation company where I was shooting content for brands on campus, and really just anything I could get my hands on,” said Messina.
He said he started earning $4,000 a month shooting videos for sororities and other educational institutions as students clamored to capture their college memories on camera.
Today, his company is worth six figures — a credit to him expanding out of the university sphere and working with prominent companies. Clients have including Gucci Mane, Acura, MLB Network — as well as more personal brands.
“I’ve worked with personal brands like Mark Wahlberg, as well a lot of athletes, a lot of drink companies and really just anyone who needs social media content,” explained Messina, who moved to Los Angeles in 2020 to pursue business opportunities. “I have the ability to shoot with them and create content for them that they can use and promote their business and on their website.”
Some of the Moouse campaigns feature his girlfriend, Nicole Kramer, whom he’s been dating since before his aneurysm.
Messina, who currently resides in Beverly Hills, says his vision over the next 10 years is to make his company earn seven figures.
He also wants “to connect with as many cool brands, including personal brands, and meet with as many people as possible and see them grow as I grow.”
Along with making a name for himself, the budding entrepreneur also wanted to help other students who, like him after his stroke, were struggling to find a purpose in life.
In accordance, he launched Moouse University, which empowers college students to find their passion or even start their own company.
“I wanted to help out other college students who were in that position of not knowing what they want to do with their life and possibly having a passion that they didn’t know what to do with,” Messina described. “We teach them how to do the business side of things, help them edit and connect them with work, and they learn to be professional and how to become a brand themselves.”
He added, “The whole Moouse brand is inspired by my story of how I was extremely lost in college and didn’t know what I was doing. I had a brain surgery, I almost died.”
In fact, Messina ultimately credits this ordeal for his success.
“This may sound crazy, but I’m glad for the sneeze, the brain aneurysm and the surgery that forced me to drop out,” he told E! “Without those events, I wouldn’t get to where I am today, and I wouldn’t be in a position to help others change their lives for the better.”
