Emilia Clarke reveals that part of her brain is missing after suffering "the most excruciating pain" during her two brain aneurysms.
During an interview with BBC's Sunday Morning, Emilia spoke candidly about her life-altering brain injuries, stating that it is "remarkable" that she can still speak.
Emilia experienced her first aneurysm in 2011 after filming finished on the first season of Game of Thrones. She was rushed to the hospital and underwent a three-hour surgery in which a catheter was inserted into her groin and pushed through the femoral artery to her brain. When she woke, she couldn't remember her own name and spoke gibberish. "In my worst moments, I wanted to pull the plug," she wrote in her 2019 New Yorker essay. "I asked the medical staff to let me die."
Clarke spent the next month in the hospital, regaining complete control of her brain. However, in the spring of 2013, during a routine brain scan, doctors found that an unruptured aneurysm had doubled in size, which led them to perform another emergency procedure. Unfortunately, during the surgery, she developed a massive brain bleed, resulting in intensive open brain surgery that left her in more pain than the first.
Only months after her surgery, she appeared with the Game of Thrones cast at the 2013 Comic-Con Q&A panel while experiencing intense headaches and health-related anxiety. Nevertheless, she continues to spread awareness of the aftermath of traumatic brain injuries, even founding SameYou, a charity focused on developing better recovery treatment for survivors.
Despite her brain injuries, Clarke continued to star on Game of Thrones for all eight seasons and in films such as Me Before You, Terminator Genisys, and Solo: A Star Wars Story. She is currently making her West End debut in the 21st-century modernization of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull. ~Megan Parsons
in 1977 my sister died of a brain aneurysm. I worked as a fundraiser at a hospital and the physicians knew of her death and the cause. In 2000 when I was supposed to have a hysterectomy, the doctors said they would do a cardiac test (I can't remember what it was) to see if I had any aneurysms. They found that I had one that was changing shape and one that was growing in size. I had to have 2 surgeries on them. I now have a short-term memory loss, can't do math, my handwriting is poor, I have trouble finding the words I need to communicate when I'm tired, I have trouble with directions (Thank God for GPS), and several other problems. Two years after my surgeries, I was laid off because my memory was not improving. I was, however, able to take care of my two nephews from birth to age 16. I am on disability. My mother had a small aneurysm, but it never bothered her. My brother does not have any. I always tell people to be checked if a sibling, or grandparent has one.