Hailey Bieber Shares She Underwent Heart Procedure After Mini-Stroke

Hailey Bieber has shared more details about her March hospitalization for a blood clot to her brain. Learn more about the model’s medical ordeal and how she’s feeling now

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Hailey Bieber is opening up about the "scariest moment" of her life.

In a YouTube video posted April 27, the model shared more details about her hospitalization last month. Bieber said that she suffered a mini stroke and that it led to the discovery of a heart condition, which has since been repaired.

In March, the model wrote on Instagram that she experienced "stroke-like symptoms" while having breakfast with husband Justin Bieber and was then treated at a hospital for a "very small blood clot to my brain."

In the new video, Bieber delved into exactly what happened that day. "I had like, a very scary incident on March 10th," she said. "Basically, I was sitting at breakfast with my husband, having a normal day, normal conversation, and we were in the middle of talking and all of a sudden, I felt this really weird sensation that kind of like, traveled down my arm from my shoulder all the way down to my fingertips, and it made my fingertips feel really numb and weird."

She continued, "Justin was like, 'Are you OK?' and I just didn't respond because I wasn't sure. And then he asked me again and when I went to respond, I couldn't speak. The right side of my face started drooping. I couldn't get a sentence out. Everything was coming out like, not even jumble, just like, couldn't get any of the words out."

"I had so many things running through my head," she said in the video. "The number one thing being, I'm having a stroke. I'm really scared. I don't know what's going on. I don't know why this is happening. Am I gonna have permanent issues from this?"

Bieber said she was able to walk and returned home to wait for an ambulance, after which her "speech started to come back a little bit."

The model also shared a lighter moment, saying that emergency workers overestimated her age while she was in the ambulance. "There was actually a funny moment where they were calling into the hospital to explain what they were bringing in and they were like, 'I have a 30-year-old female,' and I was like, 'I'm 25.' I had to make sure that they weren't gonna age me five years for no reason, you know."

Bieber said that by the time she reached Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif., she had no symptoms. She said they performed scans, which showed she "suffered a small blood clot to my brain, which they labeled and categorized as something called a TIA."

According to the National Library of Medicine, a TIA, or Transient Ischemic Attack, is also known as a "mini stroke." It occurs when the blood supply to part of the brain is briefly blocked. Symptoms include numbness or weakness -- especially on one side of the body, trouble speaking, dizziness, loss of balance and difficulty walking.

In her previous Instagram post, Bieber wrote that her blood clot had "caused a small lack of oxygen, but my body had passed it on its own and I recovered completely within a few hours." In her YouTube video, Bieber said that after she was discharged the next day from the hospital, she got more testing done at UCLA Medical Center to figure out what caused the blood clot and how it reached her brain.

She said doctors noted that she had "recently started birth control pills, which I should have never been on because I am somebody who suffered from migraines." They also cited that she had recently flown to and from Paris without moving much or wearing compression socks, and also that she "had recently had COVID," which was "something that they thought was a contributing factor." Bieber suffered her blood clot three weeks after Justin's rep confirmed that the singer had contracted COVID-19, which can damage the brain and lead to blood clots.

But test results showed she had a "grade 5 PFO." A Patent Foramen Ovale, or congenital hole in the heart, increases the risk of TIA or other strokes, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

"The conclusion was that I had a blood clot that traveled into my heart," she said. "My blood clot actually escaped through the flap or the hole in my heart and it traveled to my brain and that is why I suffered a TIA."

Bieber said her doctors closed the hole in her heart with a procedure involving a catheter inserted through the femoral artery near her groin.

"It went very smoothly," she said. "I'm recovering really well really fast. I feel great. The biggest thing I feel, honestly, 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 just move on from this really scary situation and just live my life."

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