A number of celebrities have openly discussed their strokes in recent years. We applaud them for their honesty and courage because it sheds light on a growing problem and demonstrates that strokes are happening increasingly in younger and younger people. Their experiences also highlight that strokes have many triggers.

Emilia Clarke, known for her role as Daenerys Targaryen, Mother of Dragons in Game of Thrones, has publicly discussed the two strokes she had during the early years of the series when she was only in her mid-twenties. Her strokes were subarachnoid hemorrhages, which are caused when an aneurysm rupture.

Hailey Beiber, fashion model and wife of singer Justin Bieber, experienced a transient ischemic attack (TIA) just months ago, at the age of 25, caused by an undiagnosed hole in her heart.

In 2001, Sharon Stone was at the height of her career, with blockbuster movies such as Basic Instinct and Casino under her belt. But at only 39, she had a debilitating stroke that took seven years to fully recover from and caused her to lose her career, her fortune, and almost the custody of her children.

Country singer Randy Travis experienced a stroke during heart surgery in 2013 at the age of 54. Tedy Bruschi, New England Patriots linebacker, suffered a massive stroke days after his team won the Superbowl in 2005. He was only 32. Like Hailey Bieber, he was found to have a hole in his heart.

Chris Tarrant, host of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, survived a stroke in 2014 at age 68, following a long flight. Shortly after the stroke, he had emergency surgery to remove blood clots in his leg.

Bruce Willis, the iconic actor known for Die Hard movies and so many others, recently announced that he was stepping away from acting due to aphasia, a condition that limits the ability to speak coherently and understand others’ speech. This devastating condition is often attributed to stroke. While no public statement has been made suggesting that Willis experienced a stroke that brought on this condition, numerous celebrities have experienced aphasia following known strokes, including Dick Clark, Kirk Douglas, Randy Travis, Sharon Stone, and Emilia Clarke.

While these celebrities have survived their strokes and most have recovered after a number of years of therapy, some relatively young celebrities who have had strokes in recent years died of their strokes. They include:

• Bill Paxton, actor, director: 2017 after heart surgery (age 61)

• Luke Perry, actor known for Beverly Hills 90210: 2019 (age 52)

• John Singleton, director of Boyz N the Hood: 2019 (age 51)

• Isaac Lee Hayes, singer-songwriter, actor, producer: 2005 (age 65)

• Rick James, singer-songwriter, producer: 2004 (age 56)

Younger stroke patients are more likely to recover from their strokes with fewer long-term residual effects, but the chance of recurrence is high. Monitoring the health of people who either already had strokes or have a high risk of stroke is critical to catching future strokes at their very beginning.

The sooner a stroke is diagnosed, the faster life-saving protocols can be initiated, which is why we developed our Neuralert Stroke Detection System. Combining a non-invasive wrist band technology with our patented AI algorithm that detects arm asymmetry while modeling out typical causes of asymmetric movement, Neuralert can alert medical professionals as much as five times faster than conventional methods, especially within hospital settings, where stroke detection is often delayed. Contact us to see how we can partner with you to detect strokes sooner and potentially save lives.