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Game Of Thrones actress Emilia Clarke reveals she survived two life-threatening brain aneurysms

Game of Thrones actress Emilia Clarke has revealed that she suffered two life-threatening brain aneurysms while filming the hit show.

The British actress, who plays Daenerys Targaryen in the popular show, opened up about suffering a subarachnoid haemorrhage when she was just 24 after feeling pressure on her brain while working out with a personal trainer in 2011.

“I tried to ignore the pain and push through it, but I just couldn’t. I told my trainer I had to take a break. Somehow, almost crawling, I made it to the locker room. I reached the toilet, sank to my knees, and proceeded to be violently, voluminously ill,” Clarke wrote in The New Yorker.

Clarke explained that a woman found her and put her in the recovery position before calling an ambulance and her parents, who were in Oxfordshire.

Survivor: Emilia Clarke has written about her past health experiences (AFP/Getty Images)
Survivor: Emilia Clarke has written about her past health experiences (AFP/Getty Images)

Clarke wrote: “The diagnosis was quick and ominous: a subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), a life-threatening type of stroke, caused by bleeding into the space surrounding the brain.

“As I later learned, about a third of SAH patients die immediately or soon thereafter.”

Clarke’s essay told of the pain she felt when she woke from her first surgery at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in Queen’s Square and was in ICU for four days.

But due to aphasia – a consequence of brain trauma – Clarke struggled to recall her own name and admits to begging the staff to “let her die”.

“In my worst moments, I wanted to pull the plug. I asked the medical staff to let me die,” she wrote. “My job—my entire dream of what my life would be—centred on language, on communication. Without that, I was lost.”

Clarke was told she had another aneurysm on the other side of her brain, one that was regularly monitored. In 2013, she underwent surgery again after suffering a bleed on the brain.

As well as sharing her story, Clarke has launched her own charity called SameYou raising funds to treat those recovering from brain injury and stroke.

Clarke finished: “There is something gratifying, and beyond lucky, about coming to the end of [Game Of] Thrones.

“I’m so happy to be here to see the end of this story and the beginning of whatever comes next.”