Prue Leith, the 86-year-old Great British Bake Off star, has revealed she was hospitalised in recent weeks after a sudden deterioration in her sight and speech. Her husband, John Playfair, called an ambulance after her speech became an 'incomprehensible jumble of disconnected words', fearing she was having a stroke. The incident occurred while the couple were in Yorkshire.
Migraine Attack Mimics Stroke Symptoms
Writing in her column in the September issue of The Oldie magazine, Leith explained that the episode was a 'migraine attack', a condition she has suffered from since childhood. The attack followed a familiar pattern: first, her vision constricted to half of whatever she was looking at, then a 'bright circle of flickering, coloured lights' appeared in her vision.
Leith typically manages her migraines with a cocktail of paracetamol, ibuprofen, and sumatriptan. However, this time, her husband feared the worst. She wrote: 'I tried to tell him it was just a migraine, but I couldn’t string two words together.'
Hospital Visit and CT Scan
Playfair rang their doctor, who asked Leith a series of questions: Could she raise her arms? Yes. Make a fist? Yes. Did anything hurt? No. Was the side of her face drooping? No. Despite her answers, the doctor ordered an ambulance to take her to Harrogate Hospital.
Leith faced a six-hour wait to see a doctor, by which time her speech had recovered. As a precaution, given that people her age are prone to mini-strokes, she underwent a CT scan. She was finally discharged at 2am.
Leith said: 'I knew all along that all I had was a migraine. But since the speech problem is a classic symptom of a stroke, and my extreme old age being a time when mini-strokes are common, everyone was determined to be safe not sorry.'
First Migraine at Age Nine
Leith recalled suffering her first migraine at age nine, when her speech went 'bananas'. She tried to tell her mother she felt sick, but instead blurted out, 'I want fish.'
Despite the long wait, Leith praised the NHS staff at Harrogate Hospital, describing how a nursing assistant even found her a ham sandwich. She wrote: 'The NHS personnel are all cheerful, sympathetic, polite, helpful and professional. You may have to wait forever, but when it is your turn, you are treated as if you were the only patient in A&E.'
The NHS advises that stroke symptoms can be remembered using the acronym FAST: Face, Arms, Speech, and Time. If someone cannot smile, has a dropped face, cannot lift both arms, or has slurred speech, call 999 immediately. The Stroke Association also offers a helpline at 0303 3033 100 or via email at helpline@stroke.org.uk.
