Emilia Clarke wrote a public letter of thanks to the healthcare providers who cared for her after her two brain aneurysms. The Game of Thrones star had her first aneurysm in 2011 while working out at the gym, and a second one two years later. She said the second aneurysm was more difficult to recover from than the first. Almost a decade after suffering her first of two brain aneurysms, Emilia Clarke wrote a letter to thank her healthcare providers in the U.K's National Health Service (NHS). Last spring, the Game of Thrones actress revealed in New Yorker that how she survived two life-threatening brain aneurysms while filming the HBO series. In a new book edited by Adam Kay, titled , Emilia wrote a letter to express her gratitude for her caregivers during her three weeks in the hospital. (Other contributors to the book include Paul McCartney, Ed Sheeran, Emma Watson, and Malala Yousafzai.) Emilia gave a special shoutout to one nurse in particular in her letter: "The nurse who suggested—after everyone else in A&E struggled to find an answer when I was first admitted—that maybe, just maybe I should have a brain scan. She saved my life." She also thanked her anesthetist, her brain surgeon, the nurses who bathed and clothed her while she was incapacitated, and the hospital cooks. She closed by thanking the nurse who allowed her mother to stay in her hospital room. "In all those moments, over those three weeks, I was not, not ever, truly alone," she wrote. In April 2019, Emilia opened up to CBS This Morning about her ordeal, and shared some never-before-seen photos from after her brain surgeries. In the CBS interview, Emilia recalled the day in February 2011 when her first aneurysm ruptured: "Basically I was in the gym, the most excruciating pain, like an elastic band just went, like, snap in my head," she said. "An enormous amount of pressure suddenly, and then very very very quickly, I realized I couldn't stand and I couldn't walk, and in that moment I knew I was being brain damaged." CBS This Morning Emilia suffered a subarachnoid hemorrhage, or bleeding in the space that surrounds the brain. But miraculously, she was back to work on season two of Game of Thrones just six weeks later. Two years after that, Emilia was back in the hospital with another aneurysm—and this time, it almost killed her, she said. "With the second one, there was a bit of my brain that actually died," she said, explaining that "if part of your brain doesn't get blood to it for a minute, it will just no longer work. It's like you short circuit. So I had that." CBS This Morning Emilia said that her greatest fear after her second stroke was that she had lost the ability to act. "That was a deep paranoia, from the first one as well. I was like, 'What if something has short-circuited in my brain and I can't act anymore?' I mean, literally it's been my reason for living for a very long time!" Her recovery period from her second brain surgery was also more difficult than her first—both mentally and physically. "With the second one, I found it much harder to stay optimistic," she said. "I definitely went through a period of being down, to put it mildly." CBS This Morning Emilia said her character on Game of Thrones—Daenerys Targaryen—helped her through the toughest times. "You go on set and you play a badass and you walk through fire and that became the thing that saved me from considering my own mortality," she said. As of now, Emilia is "completely in the clear," and she's putting all of her energy into her new charity, SameYou, which focuses on neurorehabilitation. "I really, really am going to put my heart soul an back into transforming aftercare for brain injury recovery. Honestly, all of this makes Emilia (and Dany) seem even more badass now, right? This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io<doc-sep>Though her Game of Thrones character's look has remained the same over eight seasons, Emilia Clarke's relationship with beauty has been in transition. The 32-year-old actress, who famously portrays Daenerys Targaryen on the seminal show, recently revealed she had suffered two severe brain aneurysms, both of which had to be treated through surgery. Though her last procedure took place in 2013, Clarke has just begun publicly speaking about the life-altering experience. In a recent interview with Stylist magazine, Clarke opened up about her self-esteem following brain surgery. "I was so full of drugs from being in the hospital that I had a lot of water retention, and one half of my face was quite swollen," she said. "I felt so deeply unattractive. What I can see now is that I could see the pain behind my eyes. And no amount of anything can cover that." "I didn't want to look at my own face." In fact, for a period of time, Clarke would resist looking at herself in the mirror. She said, "After my operations, I didn't want to look at my own face. I don't normally, but all my emotions were heightened. When I looked in the mirror, I just saw pain in my eyes. I found it very, very difficult." She added, "I used to put on make-up without looking in the mirror, which probably made me look a lot worse." Clarke has since regained some of her confidence, but her beauty routine has become more streamlined than it had been in the past. "[Now] I always err on the side of wearing less make-up," she said. "My face didn't change, but my feelings about myself changed." As for her personal definition of beauty, Clarke offered a refreshing take: "Beauty is laughter. It's being inspired. If you look emaciated and tired and full of self-loathing you do not look beautiful, no matter how perfect your hair and make-up is. We should be celebrating having a giggle a bit more. Laughter is free as well, which is good."<doc-sep>As Game of Thrones winds down, star Emilia Clarke has continued to open up about the brain anuerysms that she suffered early in the run of the hit show. Clarke, who collapsed in 2011 from a subarachnoid haemorrhage and underwent several surgeries, admitted to Stylist that she could barely bring herself to look in the mirrror following her ordeal. "After my operations I didn't want to look at my own face. I was so full of drugs from being in the hospital that I had a lot of water retention, and one half of my face was quite swollen,” she told the beauty magazine. “I felt so deeply unattractive. What I can see now is that I could see the pain behind my eyes. And no amount of anything can cover that.” Clarke said that time and working on herself allowed her to come to terms with the changes and that she has boosted her self-esteem. “[Now] I always err on the side of wearing less make-up. My face didn’t change, but my feelings about myself changed,” she said. “When you can look at yourself in the eyes and feel OK with what’s looking back at you, then what more do you need?” Close She also told Stylist she's fine with the idea that she may never look as good in her day-to-day life as she does playing Daenerys. "I had the best professionals in the world doing my hair and make-up and costumes, and there is really not much I can do about it," she said, revealing that Danerys' hairstyle is seven people's worth of hair and comes down to her butt when it's unbraided. "I can’t ever get my hair to look like Daenerys’. It’s a heartbreak, but I’ve had to come to terms with that."<doc-sep>CBS Speaking to CBS This Morning, she said: "With the second one, there was a bit of my brain that actually died. If part of your brain doesn't get blood to it for a minute, it will just no longer work. It's like you short-circuit."<doc-sep>
Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke recently opened up about surviving two brain aneurysms after she filmed the first season of the show. Now, Emilia is sharing photos of herself during the recovery process and talking about why the second aneurysm was much more difficult to deal with. While promoting the final season of Game of Thrones, Emilia Clarke is opening up about how she suffered from two brain aneurysms after she finished filming the show’s first season. Recently, Emilia penned an essay in The New Yorker detailing what it was like experiencing her first aneurysm at 24 years old. She described the pain as if “an elastic band were squeezing my brain...At some level, I knew what was happening: My brain was damaged.” When Emilia was taken to the hospital, she was told there was bleeding in her brain, which often results in death or permanent brain damage. After a three-hour surgery and two weeks of recovery, she recalled that she struggled to remember her name and “wanted to pull the plug.” A week after that, she was told she had another aneurysm that could be “harmless” but could also “pop” at any time. In a just-aired interview with CBS, Emilia described what it felt like when doctors had to operate on the second aneurysm, because it had doubled in size by the time she finished season three. She said, “The second one—there was a bit of my brain that actually died. If a part of your brain doesn’t get blood to it for a minute, it will just no longer work. It’s like you’ll short-circuit. So I had that.” Emilia, who launched a charity for brain-injury survivors called Same You, also shared photos from her recovery process and said, “The first time it was difficult, but with the second one, I found it much harder to stay optimistic...I definitely went through a period of being down—putting it mildly.” CBS CBS CBS CBS While Emilia said the recovery process was incredibly difficult, she also said playing a badass like Daenerys Targaryen helped her get through it. She said, “That became the thing that saved me from considering my own mortality.” Now, Emilia says she’s “completely in the clear” and is working on spreading awareness about brain injuries. Shannon Barbour News Writer Shannon is a news writer at Cosmopolitan.com, and when she's not obsessing about Cardi B, she's thinking about Justin Bieber and still trying to memorize Beyoncé's Beychella choreography.