Former Coronation Street star Chris Fountain is set to undergo surgery after he suffered a mini stroke.
The actor, who starred as Tommy Duckworth on the cobbles, is said to be "speaking like a toddler" after the medical incident which left him hospitalised for five days in August.
The 35-year-old, who also featured on Emmerdale and Hollyoaks, had feared "life as I knew it was over" after doctors at a London hospital discovered he’d had a Transient Ischaemic Attack (TIA) - known as a mini stroke - after a blood clot lodged in his brain.
While medics were able to get the clot under control, further tests showed the actor has a hole in his heart which caused the blood clot to travel to his brain and trigger the stroke.
He'll now undergo a small surgery to patch up the hole and hopefully prevent any more clots travelling to his brain.
Speaking following the emergency, the Bradford-born star revealed he had a feeling of "sheer panic" when he first realised something was wrong.
"I woke up one morning and knew something wasn’t right," he said. "My mum called me and I just couldn’t get my words out.
"I started walking round my house looking at things and I could think what the word was, like television or fridge, but I couldn’t say it. I called 111 on my mum’s advice and they sent an ambulance for me, it was so scary."
When doctors revealed he'd had a mini stroke, he broke down in tears as he was scared of what his future could hold. Chris admitted he was concerned as to whether or not he'd have another mini stroke and if he did, whether it would leave him immobilised.
Speaking candidly about the incident, he continued: "What’s scary is if I hadn’t have called 111 when I did and got to hospital so quickly I don’t know if that clot could have travelled to the wrong place in my brain, I could have died.
"That clot was like a ticking bomb in my head."
Thankfully, Chris now has 90 per cent of his speech back, but he admits he still struggles to read aloud and finds himself stumbling over his words at times. He is currently working with a speech therapist in an effort to retrain his brain.
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