Kelly-Marie Stewart has revealed she believes the Zika Virus almost paralysed her and caused her to lose her unborn baby.
The former Hollyoaks actress insists she contracted the potentially deadly virus while on holiday in the Dominican Republic nine years ago.
Now 32-years-old Kellie-Marie has warned pregnant women to avoid travelling to countries at risk of the disease, which is caused by mosquito bites.
At the time she was diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome, after losing the sensation in her legs and becoming wheelchair-bound, which a new study has claimed the Zika Virus could cause.
Speaking to the Liverpool Echo, Kelly-Marie explained: “I went on holiday for two weeks and while there I came down with flu symptoms, I was aching all over.
“I put it down to picking up a bug, but I was covered from head to toe in mosquito bites – I looked like a Lion Bar. I was 16-weeks pregnant, and two days before flying out I’d had my scan and everything was fine.”
Kelly-Marie as Hayley in Hollyoaks
Kelly-Marie, who played Hayley Ramsey in the Channel 4 soap, added that a few days after she returned home it became apparent something wasn’t right.
She was referred to hospital and diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome. Kelly-Marie continued:
“I was in hospital for 10-months. I dropped down from nine stone to five stone because I wasn’t able to get out of the bed. I was completely paralysed from the waist down.
“I went in on the Wednesday and on the Friday I started with pains, I told them I was miscarrying.”
But, to add to her heartbreak, Kelly-Marie was unable to get an explanation behind her loss. “When the guy did the ultrasound he got his boss and said it was bizarre,” she added.
“Everything was fine but the sack was there but there was no foetus – it wasn’t a normal miscarriage.”
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