Hailey Bieber is opening up about suffering a blood clot to her brain and the diagnosis she eventually received from doctors after experiencing what she and husband Justin Bieber initially thought was a stroke. In a YouTube video posted Wednesday, the model, 25, recalled what went down on March 10 while having breakfast with Justin.
“We were in the middle of talking and all of a sudden, I felt this really weird sensation that kind of like, traveled down my arm from my shoulder all the way down to my fingertips, and it made my fingertips feel really numb and weird,” Hailey recalled. “Justin was like, ‘Are you OK?’ And I just didn’t respond because I wasn’t sure and then he asked me again, and when I went to respond, I couldn’t speak. The right side of my face started drooping. I couldn’t get a sentence out. Everything was coming out – not even jumbled – just like, couldn’t get the words out.”
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Justin immediately called for medical attention, believing she had suffered a “full-blown stroke,” and Hailey was transported to the hospital. There, doctors determined she had not suffered a stroke, but a blood clot to her brain called a Transient Ischemic Attack or TIA, which Hailey described as a “ministroke” that resolves itself “pretty quickly” and hasn’t left her with permanent side effects.
“The conclusion that all of the doctors came to, was three different things: One, was that I had just recently started birth control pills. Which, I should’ve never been on, because I am someone who suffered from migraines anyway, and I had just not talked to my doctor about this,” Hailey began, adding that her recent COVID diagnosis was another contributing factor most likely. “And then the third thing was, I had recently gone on a very long flight. I had flown to Paris and back in a very short amount of time. And I slept through the whole flight both ways, didn’t get up and move around. Never thought about wearing compressions socks,” she shared. “So, basically, all of the doctors came to the conclusion that it was the perfect storm that led to me having a small blood clot.”
Hailey would undergo more in-depth testing at UCLA Medical Center, where doctors learned she had a “fairly large” patent foramen ovale or PFO, a hole in the heart that didn’t close as it should have after birth. It was a blood clot escaping through that hole and making its way to her brain that ultimately led to her “ministroke,” Hailey explained, so she recently underwent a PFO closure procedure to prevent anything like that from happening again. “This biggest thing I feel, honestly, I just feel really relieved that we were able to figure everything out, that we were able to get it closed,” she continued. “That I will be able to just move on from this really scary situation and just live my life.”
