Original post: https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/39090789/game-of-thrones-emilia-clarke-cheated-death-brain-aneurysm/
The Game Of Thrones actress, 39, told how she believed she was “meant to die” following her medical woe, which first struck during a session in the gym.
Emilia suffered two brain aneurysms and underwent surgery during the filming of the hit HBO series in 2011 and 2013.
The condition occurs when there is a bulge in a weakened blood vessel.
Usually, brain aneurysms only cause noticeable symptoms if they burst, but the burst leads to serious issues and is known as a subarachnoid haemorrhage (or brain haemorrhage).
The London-born beauty has now spoken about the after effects of the surgeries in full detail on Elizabeth Day’s How To Fail podcast – and how they led her to “shut down emotionally”.
Emilia told the journalist and podcast anchor: “I was in the gym doing a plank and had my first brain haemorrhage and then spent the next two weeks with my agent trying to not tell HBO until they knew I wouldn’t die”.
She then filmed Game Of Thrones, where she played Mother of Dragons Daenerys Targaryen, but suffered a complication while having treatment for her second aneurysm.
She underwent surgery after being told the aneurysm had tripled in size – but when she came around she was told it “went wrong” and she needed to have her “head cut open” again.
Me Before You star Emilia told Elizabeth how doctors believed “she was going to die” and admitted: “The biggest thing that happened to me with the second brain hemorrhage was I shut down emotionally.
“It became this thing where I just couldn’t look anyone in the eye.
“When you have a brain injury, you move around in the world, and for me, what happened after the first and specifically after the second, I was just convinced that I had cheated death and I was meant to die, and that every day that’s all I could think about”.
She candidly added: “It was the opposite of ‘I survived. I feel great’.
“It was this ‘I’m not meant to be here. This is going to come and get me’.
“It just cuts you off from being able to engage with the outside world, because you’re walking around knowing that your body has failed you, your brain has failed you.
“This thing that you know to be where yourself, your perception of yourself lies, has failed you, and no one else can see it so you become very sensitive”.
She then told how any new headaches spark a fear of death and “it happening again”.
Emilia previously told how part of her brain is “missing” following her surgeries.
The star then bravely revealed never-before-seen images of her recovering in hospital, with pads attached to her skull.
