“Immediately, I thought I was having a stroke.”
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Hailey says that she first knew something was wrong while having breakfast with Justin Bieber, when she felt a “weird sensation” in her right arm.
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She also says her fingertips felt “numb and weird,” and she was having trouble speaking.
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“The right side of my face started drooping, I couldn’t get a sentence out,” she says. “Immediately, I thought I was having a stroke.”
When she arrived to the hospital, Hailey’s face and arm were feeling better — but after an overnight stay and a series of tests, it was determined that she experienced a Transient Ischemic Attack, which is also known as a mini-stroke.
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Doctors told Hailey that her recent COVID case, traveling, and a change in her birth control had contributed to the mini-stroke.
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She was discharged the following day, but a later follow-up visit revealed a Grade 5 PFO — specifically, a hole in her heart that was between 12 and 13 millimeters.
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Following the diagnosis, Hailey eventually underwent surgery to repair the hole in her heart — and according to her, the procedure went “very smoothly.”
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“The biggest thing I feel is I just feel really relieved that we were able to figure everything out, that we were able to get it closed, that I will be able to move on from this really scary situation and just live my life,” she says.
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“If there’s anybody that watches this that has gone through the same thing or something similar, I definitely really empathize with you. And I understand how life-altering and scary it is.”
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Watch the entire video here.