'I nearly lost my life just as all my childhood dreams came true': Game Of Thrones star Emilia Clarke reveals she suffered two life-threatening brain aneurysms while filmingĀ 

12:15   22 March, 2019

Emilia Clarke has revealed that she suffered and survived two brain aneurysms while filming Game Of Thrones.

The actress, 32, who plays 'Mother of Dragons' Daenerys Targaryen, shared in a candid interview with the The New Yorker that she had her first aneurysm in 2011.

She said: 'Just when all my childhood dreams seemed to have come true, I nearly lost my mind and then my life. I’ve never told this story publicly, but now it’s time.'

Emilia then explained that she had just finished filming the first season of the HBO fantasy series when she had her initial brain aneurysm while working out with a trainer.

Fearing for her life, the star admitted she repeatedly told herself that this would not be the end, as she tried to keep a sense of herself by reciting her lines from Game of Thrones.

Emilia, who was just 24 at the time, was quickly sent for an MRI where they diagnosed her with a subarachnoid haemorrhage.

This type of hemorrhage is a life-threatening form of stroke, which is caused by bleeding around the brain and a third of patients die immediately or soon after suffering one.

Emilia said: 'In my worst moments, I wanted to pull the plug. I asked the medical staff to let me die. My job—my entire dream of what my life would be—centred on language, on communication. Without that, I was lost.'

Emilia said that she was told that she had another, smaller, aneurysm on the other side of her brain while in hospital recovering which could burst at any time, however it may also just lie dormant.

Before she was thrown back into filming, Emilia had to endure a press tour for the first season of the show and said she remembers feeling like she could die at any moment and made it through interviews by sipping on morphine.

After struggling through filming for season two and pushing herself to complete season three, Emilia took a role as Holly Golightly on Broadway.

While in New York, Emilia went for a one of her regular brain scans and medics discovered that it had doubled in size and wanted to operate to avoid any complications.

Despite being promised a simple operation, Emilia said she awoke screeching in agony following the failed operation and doctors had to operate again in order to improve her chance of survival.

She said while spending another month in hospital she sometimes lost hope and suffered from anxiety and panic attacks, adding that she felt like a shadow of her former self.

The Me Before You actress said that she now struggles recalling those dark times because her mind has tried to block them out, but she does remember being convinced she would die, and that her story would get out.

A reporter asked her about her operation six weeks after the surgery, when the National Enquirer ran a small story, but Emilia was quick to deny the allegation.

However Emilia said she now feels like the time is right to speak out, and acknowledges that she is one of the fortunate few with an excellent level of care.

Several weeks after the surgery Emilia attended Comic-Con where she suffered an intense headache, and once again she resigned herself to the fact that her time had come after claiming to have cheated death.

However she was met by her publicist who told her a reporter from MTV was waiting to chat to her, and rather than running from the situation, Emilia joked that she thought if she was going to die, she'd do it live on television.

Emilia now claims she is feeling well again and alongside finally speaking out about her experiences she has decided to launch a charity called SameYou, which aims to provide treatment for people recovering from brain injuries and stroke.

She added that she feels incredibly lucky to have wrapped the final season of Game Of Thrones and been able to see how the story ended.


Source: The Daily Mail



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