HEALTH SCARE: Prue Leith Rushed to Hospital After Losing Her Ability to ‘See and Speak’
Bake Off legend Prue Leith was rushed to hospital (Image: ITV)
Great British Bake Off icon Prue Leith, 86, was rushed to hospital amid fears she was having a stroke. The TV star was holidaying in Yorkshire when she became unable to string a sentence together. Her husband, John Playfair, rang for an ambulance after her speech turned into an “incomprehensible jumble of disconnected words”. She was subsequently rushed to A&E in a blue light ambulance and spent 10 hours being checked out.
The veteran TV chef shared details of the health scare which her husband believed at the time was a stroke. “A few weeks ago, staying in Yorkshire, I had a migraine attack,” she revealed. “It followed a familiar path. First, I can see only half of whatever I’m looking at. This is speedily followed by a bright circle of flickering, coloured lights in the upper right field of vision,” she explained reassuring fans she was fine now.
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Writing in her monthly column Prue’s News in the September issue of The Oldie magazine, which is out on Friday, she said: “If I don’t swiftly swallow one of my migraine ‘bombs’ (three pills: paracetamol, ibuprofen and sumatriptan), a crashing headache will follow.”
She admitted her “incomprehensible jumble of disconnected words” led John to fear the worst.
Although she tried to tell him it was in fact a migrane she was unable to get the words out.
As a result she was rushed to hospital where she spent 10 hours in A&E but she had nothing but praise for the NHS staff who treated her.
Prue Leith’s husband John Playfair feared she was having a stroke when her speech went askew (Image: Getty)
She revealed they sent her for a brain scan “to be sure” acknowledging: “…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.”
The staff even went out of their way to feed her when she confessed she was hungry after eight hours in the deaprtment.
Prue said a nursing assistant managed to find her a sandwich of “white bread with a skinny slice of processed ham”.
“Not the healthiest supper for nurses on night shift, but John and I wolfed it down,” she shared.
