Duret hemorrhage, a secondary brainstem hemorrhage resulting from transtentorial downward herniation, is a catastrophic neurosurgical emergency and has been considered to be fatal up to the present. Recent studies have reported good neurological recovery after early medical or surgical treatment, but most of these reported cases of Duret hemorrhage were induced by a traumatic event and only one reported case was caused by aneurysmal rupture. Here we describe the rarely reported case of a patient who survived after a Duret hemorrhage that was caused by a rupture of an arteriovenous malformation.