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Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke asked medical staff to “let her die”. This shocking news comes from an exclusive article from the New Yorker titled ‘A battle for my life‘, where Emilia Clarke opened up about her previously secret story where she fought for her life.
The actress who plays Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones suffered the first of two aneurysms at the beginning of 2011, just after wrapping up the first season of Game of Thrones. It was at the gym that Emilia had the first signs of the aneurysm in the form of a extremely strong headache, trying to ignore it she pushed her way through some of the exercises, until she physically had to stop when it felt like an elastic band was physically squeezing her brain. Clarke made her way, almost crawling to the toilet, where she was violently sick while the pain in her head got much worse.
After unconsciousness set in an MRI scan revealed that she suffered a a subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), a life-threatening type of stroke, caused by bleeding into the space surrounding the brain. The scary fact that she had learned is that a third of people who have an SAH, die immediately or very soon after.
At just 24 years of age Emilia Clarke underwent brain surgery to repair her brain and save her life. She awoke from surgery in incredible pain and suffered aphasia – an inability to talk, read, write or remember. The condition is due to injury of the brain. This condition lasted one week for the Game of Thrones lead.
The Second Aneurysm
Cut to the year 2013. After many trips to the hospital with a constant struggle with pain Emilia went for a brain scan, which she had to do regularly. The scan revealed that one side of her brain had doubled in size, which meant immediate surgery.
She woke screaming in pain from the surgery… something was wrong. The surgery had failed and she had massive bleeding on the brain, in which doctors needed to perform surgery immediately by opening up her skull. If not her chances of surviving were extremely minimal.
What probably felt like a month in hell, Emilia Clarke had to spend time in hospital, recovering from the surgery, with anxiety and panic attacks.
How is Emilia Clarke now?
Today, Emilia is back to normal and thankfully feeling great! She recognises that she is not the only one to have gone through such traumatic events and as a result she has created her own charity called SameYou. SameYou helps young adults get back to being themselves after brain surgery.