Emilia Clarke Says She Suffered Two Brain Aneurysms And Almost Died!
The Game of Thrones actress opened up about her health scares that seriously threatened her life! Emilia Clarke told all in an essay titled A Battle for My Life that was published on The New Yorker’s website.
As terrifying as that is for her fans and loved ones, Clarke almost died – twice!
In the essay published earlier today, she explains that back in 2011, in order to relieve some of the stress she got filming the series, she started working out with a trainer.
During one of these training sessions, she began feeling really ill.
As she was putting on the workout clothes in the dressing room, Emilia felt a really bad headache take over all of a sudden.
Eventually, the pain got so bad that she told her trainer she needed a break and nearly ‘crawling,’ she made it back to the locker room.
The stabbing pain continued to just get worse and worse as she puked in the toilet from the intensity of it and the actress just knew at the moment that her brain had been damaged.
She was eventually rushed to the hospital.
‘The diagnosis was quick: a subarachnoid hemorrhage, a life-threatening stroke, caused by bleeding into that space surrounding the brain. I had had an aneurysm, an arterial rupture. As I learned later, about a third of patients die immediately or soon after.’
Those who survive need immediate treatment to avoid a second aneurysm that would undoubtedly kill the patient.
‘If I was to live and avoid terrible deficits, I would have to have urgent surgery. And, even then, there were no guarantees.’
She underwent a three hours procedure and as she woke up, she was still in excruciating pain and did not know where she was.
The doctors told Clarke that if she made it to the two weeks mark without any complications, the chances of making a great recovery were pretty high.
But one night, the star realized she could no longer remember her full name – she had aphasia, a consequence of her previous brain trauma.
She was starting to mutter nonsense as well and felt like her life was over since her ‘job—my entire dream of what my life would be—centered on language, on communication. Without that, I was lost.’
Fortunately, however, about a week later, the aphasia went away.
Before coming back on set, she was told that there was a smaller aneurysm on the other side of her brain that was close to popping as well.
It could have been harmless but she was not that lucky…it doubled in size while filming and needed surgery.
‘The procedure failed. I had a huge bleed and the doctors made it clear that my chances of surviving were precarious if they did not operate again. This time they needed to access my brain in the old fashioned way—through my skull. And the operation had to happen immediately.’
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In the years since then, Emilia Clarke has managed to make an incredible recovery.
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