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Doctors describe it as a ticking time bomb that can explode unexpectedly. Brain aneurysms impact up to one in 15 Americans and carry deadly consequences. Those who are fortunate to spot the warning signs early now have a new line of defense. A new computer simulation program gave one mother a second chance at life.

Rebecca Gadberry lives a fairy tale life. Her family includes a devoted husband, Mark, and son, Kyle, who rarely leaves his mom's side.

Suddenly, Rebecca's story changed.

"You just feel your world crashing in," she recalled to Ivanhoe.

"First day we were in shock, kind of numb," Rebecca's husband Mark described. "Second day, I think we cried all day."

Rebecca found out she had an aneurysm -- a bulging blood vessel in her brain.

"I had a bomb in my head that could go off at any minute," she described.

If an aneurysm ruptures, one-third of patients die immediately. Another third die within a month and survivors may face neurological problems.

"Once it ruptures, it's horrible," Satoshi Tateshima, M.D., an interventional neuroradiologist at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, Calif., told Ivanhoe.

A new computer software gets rid of some of the guessing and gives neurosurgeons a glimpse into the future.

"We can reconstruct 3-D aneurysms in a virtual space," Dr. Tateshima explained.

The program simulates blood flow direction, speed and friction in an aneurysm. The more friction, the greater chance for disaster. In Rebecca's case, the model predicted her aneurysm was in danger of bursting. It helped her make a decision to have surgery immediately.

Doctors say the software gives them more control.

"The more we know about the enemy, the better fight we can make," Dr. Satoshi said.

The Gadberrys now have a second chance for a happy ending.

Women between the ages of 35 and 60 are more likely to have a brain aneurysm than men. UCLA and George Mason University are the only centers using the software under a federal grant. It will likely be available to all hospitals within the next two years.