Hailey Bieber Reveals that She Suffered Harrowing Stroke and Underwent a Heart Procedure
The wife of Justin Bieber, Hailey Baldwin Bieber, has shared with the world that she recently suffered a harrowing medical
Tristan Green
The wife of Justin Bieber, Hailey Baldwin Bieber, has shared with the world that she recently suffered a harrowing medical emergency. Last month, Hailey suffered a stroke.
A combination of factors led up to the "perfect storm" that caused the stroke, but Hailey was able to undergo a minimally invasive heart procedure that should hopefully prevent a recurrence. It was a terrifying experience Hailey hopes never to repeat, and she's opening up about what it all felt like.
Hailey Has a Stroke
Hailey Bieber has revealed to fans that last month, she suffered a mini-stroke.
On March 10, Hailey began experiencing some terrifying symptoms.
People writes, "In a video posted to her YouTube channel, the model, 25, detailed the scary ordeal, saying she wants to tell the story in her 'own words.'
She described feeling a 'weird sensation' in her right arm while sitting at breakfast with her husband, Justin Bieber. Her fingertips felt 'numb and weird,' she says, and as her husband asked if she was okay, she found she 'couldn't speak.'
'The right side of my face started drooping, I couldn't get a sentence out,' she recalls. 'Immediately, I thought I was having a stroke.'"
Luckily there was a medic nearby who examined Bieber as an ambulance was called. The drooping in her face only lasted less than a minute but Hailey continued to struggle to form words and says her anxiety made everything worse.
Bieber was checked into the hospital overnight and underwent a series of tests. Upon admission, she scored a 0 on the stroke test – suggesting that what she experienced wasn't a full stroke. Instead, it was determined that she suffered a Transient Ischemic Attack or TIA, known as a "mini-stroke."
A blood clot caused her to lose oxygen to the brain for a brief period of time, and the clot was brought on by what doctors described as a perfect storm of events:
- Hailey had just begun taking birth control without checking with her doctor. Hormonal birth control overall doesn't raise the risk of blood clots significantly – but it does raise it slightly, and when combined with other risk factors can spell trouble.
- She recently recovered from COVID. The long-term effects on blood clotting aren't understood fully yet, but we know that those who are currently ill with COVD or who recently recovered are at a slightly higher risk of clotting complications.
- Hailey also recently traveled to Paris and back in a short amount of time. Long flights such as transAtlantic flights, long car trips, train trips and other situations where you're sitting in one place for hours at a time are considered blood clot risks. Because the blood pools in your legs, clots are more likely to form.
The combination of those three factors may have been exactly what led to the blood clot and TIA. At the time, Hailey was discharged.
At a follow-up appointment however with a doctor at UCLA, it was revealed that she suffered from a Grade 5 (the highest) PFO – Patent Foramen Oval, a small hole in the heart.
Normally, a blood clot would be filtered by the heart and absorbed into the lungs (which presents its own tricky set of risks). In this case, because of the hole, the clot was able to escape and travel up to Hailey's brain.
The model underwent a procedure that passes a wire up through the femoral vein in her groin all the way to her heart and then closes the PFO. The heart tissue will grow around the device covering the hole and it will soon be as strong as ever, hopefully preventing a recurrence of the clot.
Looking to the Future
Hailey recovered from the procedure and is sharing her story with others now.
People adds, "In the lead-up to the closure, she suffered from really bad anxiety over the possibility of future symptoms, or another similar small stroke. Now, she's ready to look forward.
'The biggest thing I feel is I just feel really relieved that we were able to figure everything out, that we were able to get it closed, that I will be able to move on from this really scary situation and just live my life.'"
In order to prevent another clot, Hailey is now on blood thinners and under the careful watch of her doctors. She waited to share her experience until she was recovered, and wants people to know they're not alone if they've experienced this.
Although Bieber has opened up about the stroke previously, this is the first time she's gone into detail about the frightening experience.
Hailey adds in her video, "If there's anybody that watches this that has gone through the same thing or something similar, I definitely really empathize with you. And I understand how life-altering and scary it is."