Unexpected Health Crisis

Nate Broughty initially thought he was just exhausted or possibly coming down with the flu when he fainted one morning last fall. Online, he’s known as “Nate The Lawyer,” and typically he rises early to engage with his social media audience. He was in the midst of recording a video when everything suddenly blacked out, and the next thing he knew, he was getting up from the floor.

The rest of the day didn’t make much sense either.

He had plans to take his wife and daughter out, but a sense of confusion set in.

“I can’t quite put it into words, but it felt like I was watching myself from outside my own body. I didn’t know what was happening or what I should do,” recalls Broughty, 48, from Houston, Texas. “Everything started getting blurry.”

Then, the headaches began. They were mild at first, but quickly escalated. Around the time of his fainting episode in November 2025, the pain intensified dramatically.

Broughty and his family visited urgent care, where his vital signs and initial tests appeared normal. However, during a doctor’s examination, he fainted again.

The doctors were taken aback when they reviewed the results of his CT scan.

“You have a serious, serious issue going on,” he remembers a doctor saying. “You have a large mass in your head.”

“That was definitely not something we expected,” he reflects, considering that he had been in good health before this incident.

The initial assessment suggested a brain tumor the size of a golf ball. However, a follow-up MRI indicated that it was actually much larger, nearly half the size of his head.

Broughty wouldn’t find out whether the tumor was benign or cancerous until a surgeon performed a grueling 15-hour operation to remove it.

Tumor Was Crushing His Brain

As the surgery approached, Broughty was filled with worry about waking up afterward.

“The thought terrified both my wife and me because I rely on my brain for my work as an attorney. We feared losing cognitive function or the ability to speak,” he shares. “I could end up being a completely different person post-surgery.”

Fortunately, he awoke with his cognitive abilities and memories intact.

The doctors managed to remove about 90% of the tumor, which was identified as a meningioma, the most common type of primary brain tumor, according to the National Brain Tumor Society.

Meningiomas originate in the thin tissue layers that envelop the brain and spinal cord, growing slowly. The American Cancer Society notes that they can affect individuals of any age, although the cause remains unclear.

Common symptoms involve headaches, seizures, and changes in vision or the senses.

In Broughty’s case, tests revealed the tumor was grade 2, which sits on the borderline between benign and cancerous. It had likely been growing unnoticed for years until it reached a critical point.

“The mass had just grown so large that it was physically compressing my brain within the skull,” he explains.

This compression is what led to his headaches and episodes of fainting. Everything transpired “really rapidly,” with symptoms and surgery occurring within just a week.

“It felt like one minute I was fine, and then everything just crashed,” he says.

Adjusting to Life

Post-recovery, radiation treatment was initially planned for the remaining tumor mass. However, three months after the surgery, scans showed no signs of any leftover meningioma cells. Doctors theorize that his immune system may have eradicated the rest of the tumor, he states.

Further testing indicated it was more in line with a grade one meningioma, meaning it was mostly benign.

Doctors continue to keep a close eye on his condition with regular scans, and he is learning to adapt to life after the ordeal.

There’s now a cavity on one side of his skull where the large mass used to be, which brings about dizziness and other issues.

“My brain hasn’t fully adapted to fill that space in my skull,” he shares. “That means I’m particularly vulnerable to concussions.”

Adding to the family’s challenges, just three months before his health scare, Broughty’s wife received a breast cancer diagnosis, so they’ve had quite a lot on their plates over the past year.

“It was a frightening experience,” he admits.