Hailey Bieber explains what caused her stroke and latest heart procedure
Hailey Bieber is opening up about how she ended up in the hospital on March 10.
In a YouTube video posted on her channel on Wednesday, the 25-year-old model went in depth about how she suffered a small blood clot to her brain.
Hailey explained that she was having breakfast with her husband, Justin Bieber, when she felt a “weird sensation” that traveled from her right arm to her fingertips, which felt numb. She shared that Justin asked if she was OK and when she went to respond, “I couldn’t speak, the right side of my face started drooping, I couldn’t get a sentence out.”
“Immediately, I thought I was having a stroke,” she said, adding that luckily there was a medic on site who was able to examine her. Hailey recalled the experience being “definitely the scariest moment of my life,” with so many concerns running through her head as she was experiencing the symptoms.
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She recalled the face drooping lasting about 30 seconds and having a hard time responding to the questions she was being asked. She was able to go home, where the ambulance picked her up. While she started to feel better, her anxiety made “everything worse.”
Once at the hospital, she said doctors determined that she suffered a small blood clot to her brain, “which they labeled and categorized as a TIA."
A Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA) is often called a mini-stroke and “a temporary blockage of blood flow to the brain,” according to the American Stroke Association.
Hailey shared that while she didn’t have any continuing symptoms, the scans showed that she had a lack of oxygen to her brain for a certain amount of time. She spent the night in the hospital and went to UCLA the following day for more testing.
Her doctors then told her three factors likely caused the blood clot itself.
"One was that I just recently started birth control pills, which I should have never been on because I am somebody who suffered from migraines anyway,” she explained. “And I just did not talk to my doctor about this.”
The second factor was that she had recently recovered from COVID-19, and the third was that she had recently gone on a long flight from Paris and back home “in a very short amount of time.”
That was “the perfect storm” for her blood clot, she said, but doctors still didn’t know why it traveled to her brain. After undergoing a transcranial doppler, an ultrasound that uses sound waves to detect the blood flow to the brain, she was diagnosed with a grade 5 PFO, “which is the highest grade that you can have. So mine was fairly large.”
“The conclusion was that I had a blood clot that traveled into my heart and instead of — what typically happens if you have a small blood clot is that the heart will filter the blood clot to your lungs and your lungs will absorb it,” she explained. “What happened with me is my blood clot actually escaped through the flap, or the hole in my heart, and it traveled to my brain and that is why I suffered a TIA.”
To remedy the PFO, she underwent a PFO closure procedure, which is when they go through the femoral vein in the groin to close the hole. Overtime, the heart tissue will grow back over the closure device, she said.
Hailey said she is now recovering and generally feeling great, apart from moments of anxiety that she struggles with.
Hailey first shared news of her hospitalization in a March 12 Instagram Story post.
Days later, her husband opened up about her health scare at his Colorado show. Justin told the crowd that Hailey was recovering but that the moment “was really scary.”
“She’s OK, she’s good, she’s strong. But it’s been scary, you know? Like, it’s been really scary,” he shared. “But I know for a fact that god has her in the palm of his hands and that’s a good thing.”
Hailey concluded her video by encouraging people who have had similar symptoms to talk to their doctor, she also shared resources and more information in the video description.