A 40-year-old woman, who suffered a massive stroke while performing a headstand, is back on her yoga mat again just one month later.
Watch the woman who suffered a massive stroke while performing a headstand
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Rebecca Leigh, Gambrills, Maryland, USA, suffered a massive stroke while performing a headstand as it tore a major blood vessel in her neck.
Talking about the incident, she said she was practicing a pretty intense type of yoga handstand called a ‘hollow back’ handstand that requires you to extend your neck, drop your hips back and arch your lower spine all while in a headstand.
She said: “I felt that I had really nailed it but as I walked inside my house, my peripheral vision went out and the rest of my vision became blurry. It was like a curtain coming down all around me.”
“I sat down and tried to put my hair into a ponytail but my left arm flopped around without any control.”
“I have suffered from headaches and migraines since I was a teenager but I knew this was different.”
Two days later, her right eye drooped and her pupils were different sizes.
Rebecca then went to the emergency room with her husband, Kevin where it was revealed she had suffered a stroke.
She lost 20lbs and was unable to get out of the bed. Now, she suffers headaches daily and can not speak for more than a few minutes.
She said: “I am still dealing with some sort of headache, face or neck pain on a daily basis. My face physically hurts and gets worse just by talking for a few minutes or having a busy day. My eye is still a bit droopy and my memory is awful.”
Despite all this, Rebecca is back on her yoga mat just one month later and does the exercise for an hour daily.
Rebecca wants to raise awareness about yoga-induced strokes by sharing her story.
She said: “After decades of focusing on working out and my diet and making as many healthy decisions as I could for my body, having a stroke by doing yoga just didn’t seem fair.”
“But I had to get back out there and do the things that made me happy and one of those things was obviously my yoga practice.”
“I wanted to share my story so that something like this doesn’t happen to any other yogis”, she added.
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