Emilia Clarke has expressed gratitude for the fact that the two brain aneurysms she suffered in her twenties did not prevent her from living a normal life.
The 35-year-old actress, who previously appeared on “Game of Thrones,” stated on a BBC One episode of “Sunday Morning” that she considers herself fortunate to be able to communicate after suffering from aneurysms while working on the Emmy-winning HBO drama.
“It’s remarkable that I am able to speak, sometimes articulately, and live my life completely normally with absolutely no repercussions,” Clarke said in a video excerpt from the interview published by Metro. “It’s amazing that I can speak, sometimes articulately, and live my life completely normally with no repercussions.”
“I am among the extremely, extremely, extremely small percentage of people who can survive that,” she added. “I am among the extremely, extremely, extremely small percentage of people who can survive it.”
According to Clarke, a subsequent scan of his brain revealed that “quite a bit” of it was “missing… which always makes me chuckle.”
She went on to say that when someone has a stroke, “basically, any area of your brain that doesn’t get blood for a second, it’s gone.” “As a result, the blood finds a more direct and distinct path around the obstacle, but it loses whatever component it was missing.”
An aneurysm is a medical term for a bulging in the wall of a cerebral artery. If it grows large enough, it can burst and cause life-threatening bleeding, according to the National Institutes of Health. [citation required]
According to the American Heart Association, brain aneurysms, also known as cerebral aneurysms, affect anywhere from 3% to 5% of the population. A subarachnoid hemorrhage is a type of stroke that can occur when a brain aneurysm ruptures, according to the Mayo Clinic. Clarke had a stroke of this type.
Clarke detailed her experience with medical treatment in a 2019 essay for The New Yorker.
The actor revealed that the initial brain aneurysm occurred in February 2011, shortly after the first season of “Game of Thrones” wrapped filming. Clarke, who was 24 at the time, was working out with a personal trainer when she felt a sharp ache in her head.
“My trainer had me do a plank, and I immediately felt like an elastic band was squeezing my brain,” she wrote in her journal. “It felt like my brain was being stretched tautly.” “I was so weak that I had to crawl to the dressing room.” I finally got to the bathroom, collapsed to my knees, and proceeded to vomit a large amount. Meanwhile, the pain, which was described as shooting, stabbing, and restricting, worsened. On some level, I was aware of what was going on, which was that my brain was being harmed.
Clarke was diagnosed with subarachnoid hemorrhage after being transported to the hospital, and she was immediately rushed into a three-hour operation.
Following the treatment, she experienced excruciating pain, vision problems, and aphasia, a disorder in which a person’s ability to speak and write is impaired due to brain injury. Clarke was able to recall a time when she couldn’t even remember her own name.
She claimed that when she was at her lowest, she wanted to “pull the plug.” “I begged the doctors to let me die,” the patient explained.
Clarke discovered a second, less severe aneurysm on the opposite side of her brain during the month she spent in the hospital recovering from her injury. The doctors assured her that it could be dormant and completely safe for the rest of her life. They advised keeping a “close eye” on the situation.
However, while performing in a Broadway play in 2013, Clarke underwent a brain scan, which revealed that the tumor in her brain had doubled in size. The actress had only five days left on her Screen Actors Guild insurance policy at the time. Clarke had surgery to address it, but there were complications during the procedure.
“When they woke me up, I was screaming in anguish,” Clarke wrote. “The surgery had been a failure. I lost a significant amount of blood, and the doctors made it abundantly clear that if the operation was not repeated, my chances of survival were slim. They had to use the old-fashioned method of accessing my brain this time, which was through my skull.
Her recovery from the second operation was even more difficult than the first. “When I awoke after the surgery, there was a drain protruding from my head.” “Bits of my skull had been replaced by titanium,” the celebrity recalled in her memoir, adding that she also suffered from incapacitating terror and anxiety attacks while in the hospital.
She eventually recovered completely and is now living a normal life.
She claimed that in the years since her second operation, she had healed beyond her most ridiculous expectations. “At this point, I am operating at full capacity.”
