Sharon Stone reveals doctors thought she was 'faking' brain haemorrhage

In a recent interview, renowned actress Sharon Stone opened up about a harrowing medical ordeal from 2001, where she survived a brain haemorrhage, revealing that doctors initially thought she was "faking" her condition.

The Basic Instinctstar detailed the traumatic experience when she was rushed to the hospital after suffering a stroke that resulted in a nine-day brain bleed, ultimately necessitating a two-year hiatus from her acting career.

Stone recounted the moment she woke up in a Los Angeles emergency room with excruciating head pain, saying, "I remember waking up on a gurney and asking the kid wheeling it where I was going, and him saying, 'brain surgery'."

She further revealed that a doctor had decided, without her knowledge or consent, to proceed with exploratory brain surgery and sent her off to the operating room.

"What I learned through that experience is that in a medical setting, women often just aren't heard, particularly when you don't have a female doctor," Stone stated in the interview with Vogue.

Recalling the moment doctors finally recognised her brain haemorrhage, Stone explained, "They missed it with the first angiogram and decided that I was faking it."

Fortunately, her best friend persuaded them to perform a second angiogram, leading to the discovery that she had been haemorrhaging into her brain. "My best friend talked them into giving me a second one and they discovered that I had been haemorrhaging into my brain, my whole subarachnoid pool and that my vertebral artery was ruptured. I would have died if they had sent me home,"Stone revealed.

The aftermath of the haemorrhage left Stone with debilitating effects, including a drooping right side of her face, severe foot drag on her left side and severe stuttering.

The actress still deals with the consequences of this traumatic incident, taking daily medication to address the stuttering and severe brain seizures. She described the experience as "painful" and noted that she suffered from painful knots on her head that felt like she had been punched.

Despite her incredible journey to recovery, Stone revealed that she didn't publicly share details of her brain bleed for years because she was afraid of how the public would react. She concealed her disability and rarely ventured outside, fearing that nobody would accept her.

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