In early March, Hailey Baldwin was hospitalized for stroke-like symptoms.
Though she quickly recovered, doctors speculated that the frightening episode could have been COVID-related.
Now, Hailey is opening up to fans in her own words about what happened and everything that followed.
Her extremely informative video walks us all through her mini-stroke, the tests run afterwards, and the steps taken to prevent it from happening again.
It has been well over a month since Hailey’s harrowing medical scare, but she is opening up to fans on her YouTube channel.
You might be shocked by how informative and well-presented her explanation and walkthrough are.
Hailey begins with describing having breakfast with her husband (Justin Bieber, though she does not name him) before feeling a “weird sensation.”
The sensation, she explains, began in her right arm, with her fingertips feeling “number and weird.”
Noticing that something was wrong, her husband asked if she was okay, which is when Hailey discovered that she “couldn’t speak.”
She detailed: “The right side of my face started drooping. I couldn’t get a sentence out.”
Just like the rest of us, Hailey jumped to a conclusion that matched her symptoms: “Immediately, I thought I was having a stroke.”
Fortunately, a medic happened to be nearby where they were, and began examining her even before the ambulance arrived.
The facial drooping only lasted a grand total of about 30 seconds, though Hailey of course could not see her own face.
However, Hailey struggled even to speak during this time, and it was difficult to answer questions.
She noted that her anxiety seemed to make things worse, though she did try to correct her age in the ambulance — she is 25, not 30.
“By the time I got to the emergency room, I was pretty much back to normal,” Hailey reported. “[I] could talk, [I] wasn’t having any issues with my face or my arm.”
Hailey underwent a stroke test at the ER — some of which can be administered at home — and scored a 0 on the checklist.
Despite no longer experiencing symptoms, she stayed overnight at the hospital for a series of tests.
Hailey was a millionaire in her own right before marrying The Biebs; if you have the money, you might as well get checked out to make sure that a scare isn’t a warning of something worse.
The battery of tests revealed that Hailey had suffered a TIA, a Transient Ischemic Attack.
Yes, this is the fancy name fo ra “mini-stroke.” A blood clot had cut off oxygen to parts of her brain for a short amount of time.
Three likely factors played into this: going on the wrong kind of birth control without speaking ot her doctor about her migraines, recently having COVID, and having been on a long flight.
After that “perfect storm” of stroke factors, Hailey was discharged.
However, doctors still needed to determine how the blood clot had made its way to her brain.
They suspected that she had a PFO, a small opening in the heart that normally heals after birth, but sometimes remains open.
Hailey walked her fans and followers through every step of her test, including the “more accurate” transcranial doppler.
She ended up being diagnosed with a Grade 5 PFO, the “highest grade” possible, with a hole in her heart between 12 and 13 millimeters.
At this point, the “grateful” model received an endoscopic procedure through her femoral artery to place an artificial seal on the hole. Phew!
