Silvia Abascal is recovering at the Gregorio Maranon Hospital from the ‘ stroke ‘ she suffered on April 2 during the Malaga Film Festival. The news has shocked the entire country. It makes our hair stand on end to think how something like this can happen to a person so young and so full of vitality.
We wanted to be interested in what happened trying to find an explanation, trying to find out what the consequences could bethat Silvia could suffer after this setback. That is why we have spoken with an expert in neurology, Dr. SMG from the Hospital 12 de Octubre in Madrid, who incidentally has clarified certain things that we journalists were dealing with incorrectly.
The first thing to point out is what a stroke is and if Silvia Abascal has really suffered it or is it something else: “A stroke is a cerebral infarction that can be ischemic (infarct area without blood, generally due to blockage of a cerebral artery, either due to cholesterol either by a thrombus from the heart) or hemorrhagic (with the presence of blood)”, defines the doctor.
Is it correct to speak of stroke in the case of Silvia Abascal?
“She has not had a stroke as we neurologists know strokes. Everyone talks about stroke, but it is incorrect in Silvia’s specific case”, SMG tells us. The doctor clarifies something quite important: “What Silvia has had is a hemorrhage in the cerebellum and not in the brain. Indeed, it seems that he had a vascular malformation (probably arteriovenous malformation that is very common in the cerebellum) and he has had bleeding and they have operated on said malformation”. She tells us that “not being in the brain, the symptoms are different. The cerebellum is part, along with the brain and the brainstem, of the brain. Its main functions -among others- are balance and coordination”.
“The cause is a congenital vascular malformation of the cerebellum, that is, the patient was born with said malformation. At a given moment, caused or not by some trigger, one of the malformed vessels ruptures and bleeding occurs. This can appear at any age or never occur, so a person could live their whole life with a vascular malformation without knowing it and without presenting any symptoms,” the doctor tells us.
“When it is due to a congenital malformation, on very rare occasions malformations can lead to stroke, it would be better to say ‘cerebrovascular accident ‘which is a broader term and includes stroke and other cerebral vascular pathologies. The congenital malformations that can most frequently give rise to a stroke are aneurysms and arteriovenous malformations, and what they usually produce are cerebral bleeding”, the doctor tells us, insisting that we should speak of “stroke secondary to a vascular malformation brain “.
What then are the symptoms of the accident that Silvia Abascal has had? Doctor SMG tells us that “cerebellar bleeding can cause dizzying symptoms, loss of balance when walking and dysfunction in the coordination of an arm and/or a leg, this lack of coordination is called in medical termsdysmetria and dysdiadochokinesia “.
He adds that “other symptoms may also occur such as impaired speech articulation or dysarthria (can speak and understand but with problems ‘pronouncing’), dysphagia (difficulty swallowing), nystagmus (aberrant eye movements), etc but this is less frequent… “she clarifies.
The possible prognosis of Silvia Abascal after the stroke
The prognosis that Silvia Abascal could have after an accident of this type, according to the doctor, may be the same as if it had affected the brain, although “perhaps in the cerebellum the prognosis is a bit worse, but it seems that Silvia should be good”.
SMG tells us that in this type of ‘accident’, “the most critical hours are the first 48-72 hours. If there was a vascular malformation, emergency surgery should be performed so that it does not bleed again. If the bleeding has been small and the with a successful intervention, the patient can recover, and even more so when she is young, without squeal. If the bleeding has been extensive, some small sequelae may remain (in strength, in sensitivity…) and require short- and long-term rehabilitation.”
The expert tells us that in the specific case of Silvia the prognosis can be very good for several reasons: “they have transferred her from Malaga to Madrid, if she had been very serious they would not have transferred her. Of course the prognosis is always much better in people young as is the case”.
And even one more incentive: the people closest to the actress say that she is fine. The doctor tells us that “in the best of cases, if everything went well, she could recover over the course of a month, but each case is different…”