Hailey Bieber is reflecting on her “life-changing” mini-stroke in 2022.
The 26-year-old model, who is married to Justin Bieber, took to her Instagram Story on Friday (March 10) to mark the one-year anniversary of a medical emergency that landed her in the hospital with stroke-like symptoms. Doctors later determined that she had Patent Foramen Ovale (PFO), a hole in the heart that didn’t properly close at birth.
“Can’t believe it’s been one year since I suffered a mini stroke that led to my PFO diagnosis,” Bieber wrote in her Instagram Story alongside a nearly year-old YouTube video of herself discussing the condition.
She continued, “Given that it’s the 1 year mark from such a life changing event, I wanted to share all the information I’ve learned about PFO and share resources to donate.”
In a follow-up post, the Rhode skincare founder shared information from UCLA Health about PFO, noting that it’s “the most common congenital heart defect” and affects “20% of all people.” The post explained that PFO has a “60% occurrence among 1st degree relatives” and that “60% of people who have a stroke without a known cause are likely to have a PFO.”
In April 2022, Bieber shared a 12-minute video breaking down the “very scary incident” that began while she was sitting at breakfast with her pop star husband. After being taken to the hospital following stroke-like symptoms, medical scans showed a small blood clot in her brain caused by a Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA). It was later discovered that she had a “grade 5 PFO,” meaning the blood clot traveled to her heart. She later underwent a procedure to close the PFO.
The model revealed earlier this year that she had been struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following the incident.
“I struggled with a lot of anxiety after. I struggled with a little bit of PTSD of just, like, the fear of maybe it was gonna happen again,” Bieber said on The Run-Through with Vogue podcast in January. “It was just a feeling that I was, like, I never want to experience that ever again. It was so terrifying, so jarring, so discombobulating in every single way that you could imagine.”
See Bieber’s post on her Instagram Story here.
