Gogglebox star Shaun Malone was struck down by a devastating brain condition during his teenage years, he and his famous family previously revealed.
The terrifying incident, which saw Shaun collapse at home, left his family “frantic”, mum Julie revealed in an interview.
Gogglebox star Shaun Malone’s terrifying collapse
Back when Shaun was a teen, he collapsed after developing sinusitis.
Sinusitis is the inflammation of the sinus cavities, usually caused by a viral infection.
However, the infection found its way to Shaun’s brain, causing it to swell.
Shaun collapsed and was rushed to the hospital, where he had to undergo a six-hour surgery to remove a piece of bone from his brain.
Speaking to The Mirror previously, mum Julie said: “We were absolutely frantic. The doctor said Shaun only had a slim chance of surviving surgery, that there were no beds available. Tom said I just went doolally, saying: ‘He’s going to be fine, he’s going to be fine.’ Thankfully, Tom was level-headed and really pushed them.”
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Shaun reflected on scary incident that left him in a coma
Julie then said: “When a bed was finally found, Shaun spent six hours in surgery to remove a piece of bone from his skull because of the swelling. He was in a coma for two weeks and when he came around had to learn to walk all over again.”
Thankfully, Shaun fully recovered from the ordeal. And, in 2020, he opened up about it during an appearance on the Coaching from the Sofa podcast.
“In 2010, I got sinusitis, and in some way, the infection found its way back to my brain. My brain started swelling and my skull started crushing it, so my mum took me to A&E, saying: ‘Look, he’s poorly!’ And they said it was sinusitis,” he said.
Shaun had ‘10% chance of living’
“And then I collapsed one day at home and I ended up going into a coma and they said to my mum and dad that I had a less than 10% chance of living,” he then continued.
“I was in a coma for a few weeks – and they said to my mum and dad: ‘Shaun’s got brain damage, we don’t know what the brain damage is or how it’ll affect him or if it’s going to be really bad,'” he then revealed.
“And when I woke up my brain damage affected me in some ways. Like my memory but mostly the way it affected me was with my left side. I essentially had a stroke. I couldn’t move my left arm, my left leg, even the left side of my face.”
Read more: Gogglebox star Sophie Sandiford announces engagement to boyfriend of three years
Gogglebox airs tonight (Friday, October 31) from 9pm on Channel 4.
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