Prue Leith was rushed to the hospital by ambulance after a frightening health scare left her unable to see properly or string a sentence together. The Sun reported on Wednesday, August 12 that the 86-year-old chef and former Great British Baking Show judge was staying in Yorkshire when symptoms she recognized as a migraine became alarming enough for her husband, John Playfair, to fear she was having a stroke.
Writing about the ordeal in the September issue of The Oldie (which is not out on stands yet), Leith described how the episode began in a familiar way but quickly became difficult for those around her to distinguish from a more serious emergency, as excerpted by The Sun.
Prue Leith Lost ‘Half’ Her Sight Before Her Speech Became Jumbled
Getty“A few weeks ago, staying in Yorkshire, I had a migraine attack,” Leith wrote.”It followed a familiar path. First, I can see only half of whatever I’m looking at.”
She said the vision problem is usually followed by “a bright circle of flickering, coloured lights in the upper right field of vision.”
Leith normally takes what she jokingly calls her migraine “bombs,” a combination of paracetamol, ibuprofen and sumatriptan, before the headache becomes severe.
This time, however, her speech deteriorated enough to frighten her husband.
“This time, my incomprehensible jumble of disconnected words convinced John I was having a stroke,” she wrote.
“I tried to tell him it was just a migraine, but I couldn’t string two words together.”
Prue Leith’s Husband Called for an Ambulance Amid Stroke Fears
Playfair contacted their doctor, who asked Leith to perform several basic checks, including raising her arms, making a fist and checking whether one side of her face was drooping.
Even though Leith could complete the tasks, the doctor advised that she be taken to Harrogate Hospital. “In spite of my answers, she ordered an ambulance to take me to Harrogate Hospital,” Leith recalled.
After arriving at the emergency department, she went through further assessments before a doctor ordered a CT scan.
“In spite of my assuring him (I’d recovered coherent speech by then) that it was a migraine, he decided on a CT scan. Two hours later, I had one, waited another hour for the results, and was released at 2am.”
Leith said she spent roughly 10 hours in the emergency department before being allowed home.
Prue Leith Has Experienced Migraines Since Childhood
The television personality revealed that the bizarre speech problems were not entirely new to her.
Leith said she experienced her first migraine at age 9. During that episode, she tried to tell her mother she felt sick, only for completely different words to come out.
“When I had my first attack, I was trying to tell my mother I wanted to be sick, but it came out ‘I want fish.’”
Despite knowing her own history, Leith understood why doctors took the latest episode so seriously.
“I knew all along that all I had was a migraine. But 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.”
She also praised the National Health Service staff who treated her, calling them “cheerful, sympathetic, polite, helpful and professional.”
Prue Leith Has Been Candid About Aging and Her Future
The scare comes during a period in which Leith has spoken openly about aging and how she wants to spend the years ahead. Earlier this year, she stepped away from her judging role on The Great British Baking Show after nine seasons, according to People.
Leith has also become a vocal supporter of assisted dying legislation. In a personal essay for the Daily Mail, she wrote candidly about thinking more about mortality since entering her 80s.
“There’s no denying that I don’t have much time left. All the more reason to enjoy it and to spend the remaining time well,” she wrote.
For now, Leith’s latest hospital visit ended with reassurance rather than the stroke her husband initially feared, and with the chef offering considerable gratitude to the medical staff who made certain it was nothing more serious.
