A month after her sudden admission to hospital, Hailey Bieber (25), the wife of singer Justin Bieber (28), tells in a video what exactly happened to her. The model previously shared on Instagram that a blood clot in her brain caused a stroke, but now a heart condition appears to be the main culprit. “I had a hole in my heart. Everyone is born with it, but for most people it quickly grows back.”
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“I wanted to tell the story in my own words,” Hailey Bieber begins the video on Youtube. “I was sitting at the breakfast table with my husband. A normal day, a normal conversation, until I suddenly got a strange feeling in my shoulder. It went through my arm to my fingertips. Suddenly they felt numb.”
When Justin Bieber asked his wife what was wrong, she couldn’t answer. Literally. “I couldn’t speak anymore. The right side of my face went limp, I couldn’t form words anymore. I was so scared, so many things were going through my head. I’m having a stroke, why is this happening? Is this permanent?”
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Justin responded quickly and asked someone to call 911. Fortunately, there was also a doctor nearby, who immediately came to the rescue. “He grabbed me and started asking me questions. Did I know who I was? Did I remember my name? Of course I did, but I couldn’t say. It was very scary. I could do anything but speak.”
A thirty year old woman
Not long after, the ambulance arrived. On the way to the hospital, Hailey’s speech came back at just the right time. “One of the nurses called the switchboard and said: We bring in a thirty-year-old woman† I raised my hand and mumbled: I’m 25. By the time I got to the hospital, I was almost back to normal. I could speak, my arms and face no longer felt crazy.”
After some scans, it turned out that Hailey had had a TIA, or a small stroke. “I had a small blood clot in my brain. They kept me there overnight and did all kinds of tests. They were looking for a PFO (patent foramen ovale, red.), a hole between the left and right ventricles of the heart. “Everyone is born with it, but for most people it closes naturally after birth. The doctors found none, so I was allowed to check out the next day.”
Operation
Nevertheless, the model later underwent a number of additional tests, in which a PFO was nevertheless found. And not a little one. “I had a fifth degree PFO, between 12 and 13 millimeters. The blood clot in my heart had escaped through that hole and entered my brain. I had to have surgery to close it but it went very smoothly. Now I feel good again.”
All’s well that ends well. “I am relieved that I can now move on with my life. But the whole event was an eye opener. I was very afraid of having another stroke like this. Thank you to all the doctors who have helped me. I find it hard to tell this again, until now only my family and friends knew. But it was already a public story anyway, only you didn’t know the full picture yet.”
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