Hailey Bieber reveals heart procedure after her mini-stroke

In an online video Wednesday, model Hailey Bieber shared her frightening experience with a recent mini-stroke, and urged those with similar health conditions to speak with doctors.

"I had a very scary incident on March 10," said Bieber, 25, wife of pop star Justin Bieber and the daughter of Massapequa-raised Stephen Baldwin of the Baldwin actor brothers. Expanding on an Instagram Stories post from March 12, in which she gave a capsule version, she recalled that in an unspecified public place, "I was sitting at breakfast with my husband, having a normal day … and all of a sudden I felt this really weird sensation that traveled down my arm from my shoulder all the way down to my fingertips," making them "feel really numb and weird."

When Justin Bieber asked if she were OK, "I couldn't speak. The right side of my face started drooping. I couldn't get a sentence out." Thinking she was suffering a stroke, "He asked for somebody to please call 911 and get a doctor. Where we were there happened to be a … medic there who rushed over, and they started asking me questions, they started testing my arms. … And I knew all of the answers in my head, but … it was like my tongue and my mouth just could not form the sentences."

Finding that she could walk, the couple went home and waited for an ambulance, by which time her "speech started to come back a little bit." Taken to Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, California, near Palm Springs, she said emergency room doctors determined she had suffered a transient ischemic attack (TIA), colloquially called a mini-stroke, in which blood flow to the brain is temporarily cut off.

The following day, tests at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles found a PFO (patent foramen ovale), a hole in the heart that normally closes at birth. "A grade-5 PFO, which is the highest grade that you can have," she said. "So mine was fairly large." She underwent a PFO closure by Brooklyn-born cardiologist Dr. Jonathan Tobis. She's now fully recovered but must take a blood thinner and aspirin daily. Other factors contributing to the TIA, she said, included her having recently gone on birth control pills, which is contraindicated for women who, like her, suffer from migraines.

"I felt like it was important for me to share this," Bieber said, adding, "If there's anybody that watches this that has gone through the same thing or something similar, I definitely really empathize with you and I understand how life-altering and scary it is." For those who have "experienced similar things but [don't] know the reason … I would definitely encourage you to talk to a doctor." The YouTube video's description section included a list of medical information and resources.