While this is great, the takeaway from this is she is a complete outlier. Only 10% of stroke survivors fully recover. It is that bad and horrifying that nobody in the world is willing to discuss all the problems in stroke.
The Important Reason Emilia Clarke Decided To Go Public About Her Brain Haemorrhages
Emilia Clarke is a national treasure. Over the course of nearly a decade on Game of Thrones,
she has slain countless enemies, mothered three dragons, and generally
bucked the patriarchy as Daenerys Targaryen - not to mention become an
advocate for gender equality and body positivity in real life. Yet, in a moving essay published by The New Yorker,
the 32-year-old revealed yesterday that her personal journey has
actually been just as tumultuous as Khaleesi’s, a fact she somehow
managed to keep a secret through all her years filming the blockbuster
fantasy epic. Naturally, the reveal was met with a frenzy in the press
and on social media, with an outpouring of dramatic headlines and
messages of support from her legions of fans.
In brief, just after wrapping the first season, Clarke
suffered a life-threatening aneurysm at just 24 years old, with another
one following a few years later. Her description of her surgeries is a
painful (if necessary) reminder of the horror of brain injury. Of the
second, more invasive procedure, she writes: “I looked as though I had
been through a war more gruesome than any that Daenerys experienced. I
emerged from the operation with a drain coming out of my head. Bits of
my skull had been replaced by titanium. These days, you can’t see the
scar that curves from my scalp to my ear, but I didn’t know at first
that it wouldn’t be visible.”
Sky Atlantic
Perhaps more important than her acute treatment,
however, is what happened after she left the operating room. Following
her first surgery in London in 2011, Clarke experienced aphasia - a
condition that left her incapable of remembering her own full name. The
experience nearly broke her: “I could see my life ahead, and it wasn’t
worth living. I am an actor; I need to remember my lines.” Naturally,
her second procedure in New York in 2013 triggered yet more frantic
worry about cognitive loss. “Would it be concentration? Memory?
Peripheral vision? Now I tell people that what it robbed me of is good
taste in men. But, of course, none of this seemed remotely funny at the
time,” she writes.
Sky Atlantic
What enabled her to recover fully (and conquer the world
as Daenerys) was the quality of aftercare she received - a service
available to a limited number of patients around the world. “The degree
to which people can adapt and face the future after neurological trauma
is dependent on the quality and provision of rehabilitation care,”
Clarke shares on the website for her newly-launched charity, SameYou.
“As more people recover from brain injury and stroke because of
improvements in acute care, we urgently need a major initiative to
propel neurorehabilitation support services to the forefront.” Despite
its relatively low profile in public health discussions, traumatic brain
injury is in fact the leading cause of mortality in young adults.
SameYou will work in partnership with the Royal College of Nursing,
Stroke Association, Spaulding Rehabilitation Network, and Nursing Now to
increase both funding and research.
In typically self-deprecating fashion, Clarke
took to Instagram Stories to speak directly to her 19.1 million
followers about the news, saying: “So, today is a doubly important day.
Number one, I launched a charity, which is… sizeable. Number two, I
learned how to use Instagram stories, possibly the more important one…
There’s this thing where you swipe up - ahhh! - and that takes you
straight to the charity webpage.” She continued on her main feed: “I
kept quiet about something that’s happened to me for quite a few
years…And I really sincerely would love to hear what you think. I’d love
to hear your stories. Because that’s why I started this.” SameYou is
now taking donations through its JustGiving page - and has racked up
37,000 followers on Instagram in less than 24 hours. Khaleesi would be
proud.
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