Emilia Clarke, who plays the queen of dragons in the Game of Thrones series, testifies to having suffered two ruptures of aneurysms at the end of season 1.
“It was early 2011. I had just finished filming season 1 of Game of Thrones. I was terrified. Terrified of the media coverage, terrified of an industry I barely knew (…), I felt , from every point of view, exposed. ” Emilia Clarke, the splendid queen of the dragons of the Game of Thrones series, confided on the site of the New Yorker about her two ruptured aneurysms, which hit her at the end of the show’s first season.
“I knew immediately that my brain was affected”
At the time, to better manage the pressure linked to the global success of Game of Thrones, the actress played sports with a coach. “On February 11, 2011, I was getting dressed in the locker room at the gym at Crouch End (…) when I started to experience an intense migraine. I don’t know how, almost crawling , I made it to the locker room. I got to the bathroom, fell to my knees and started to vomit profusely. The pain was getting worse and worse. I knew immediately that my brain was affected. ( …) I kept telling myself: ‘I will not be paralyzed’. (…) In order not to lose my memory, I tried to remember some dialogues from Game of Thrones “says the one who plays Khaleesi .
Supported by an ambulance, she was transferred to the hospital, where the diagnosis was final: she suffered from a ruptured aneurysm. “I remember having to sign a written authorization for brain surgery. Brain surgery? I didn’t have time for brain surgery.” After the operation, the actress wakes up with “unbearable pain”, memory and speech problems. “My full name is Emilia Isobel Euphemia Rose Clarke. But I didn’t remember it,” recalls Emilia Clarke, who admits to “asking the medical staff to let (her) die.”
Get the surgery again at the end of season 3
The young woman recovers but remakes a second, smaller aneurysm some time later, which will lead her to have another operation at the end of season 3. “Getting to the end of Game of Thrones is a gratifying thing and beyond- I’m so happy to be here to see the end of this story and the beginning of the sequel “, testifies the one who will again play the queen of dragons from April 14th.
Aneurysm is an abnormal dilation of an artery, which presents as a local swelling of the wall. This is a point of weakness in the artery, which can eventually rupture and cause internal bleeding – this is the ruptured aneurysm. It is estimated that 2-3% of the population suffers from cerebral aneurysm. The symptoms are: sudden and extremely severe headache, nausea and vomiting, blurred or double vision, sensitivity to light, drooping eyelid, loss of consciousness, or confusion.
50% of people die
“In the true aneurysmal rupture which causes subarachnoid or subarachnoid hemorrhage (spaces that surround the brain), the accident is very serious. It is estimated that 50% of people die. And in the survivors, at least 20% will have neurological sequelae “, explains on France Info Prof. Emmanuel Houdart, head of the neuroradiology service at Lariboisière hospital.
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