Greatest Showman‘s Keala Settle has revealed that she suffered a mini-stroke just one week before performing the hit “This Is Me” at the 2018 Oscars.
The stroke caused the 43-year-old actress and entertainer to lose half of her body’s motor functions, and led to her diagnosis of Moyamoya disease. According to the Mayo Clinic, the condition is a “rare, progressive blood vessel (vascular) disorder in which the carotid artery in the skull becomes blocked or narrowed, reducing blood flow to your brain.”
Keala underwent a 10-hour double-bypass brain surgery to help fix the issue, and now, she’s speaking out about what happened for the very first time.
While rehearsing her Oscars number on February 24, 2018, Keala said to People, “It was like someone cracked an egg on the top of my head and then drew a line on my body, turning one half off. My body started drooping immediately. I tried to put my hands up to my face, but I could only move my left arm. I couldn’t talk because part of my tongue was immobile. I tried to stand, but there was nothing,” she recalled to People about having the stroke.
“It could have happened at any time,” Keala said, adding that she did get her body’s motor functions back about 20 minutes after the mini-stroke. “It just so happened to happen a week before the biggest performance of my life.”
About her brain surgery, which took place in April, Keala said, “I have a new brain and that’s meant starting over. I needed a blood transfusion to help move, and then I spent the entire first month doing a lot of cognitive and physical therapy to relearn how to walk, talk, write, and live life again. I’ve been growing my memory, too. It’s all a process and I’m still working on it daily.”
If you missed it, you can watch Keala‘s performance at the Oscars right here.
