'Harry Potter' Actress Miraculously Awakes From A Coma After Baptism
A "Harry Potter" actress placed on life support after suffering a severe brain hemorrhage when she was 13 shocked doctors and her parents when she "miraculously" recovered upon being baptized by a Catholic priest.
Within 24 hours of her baptism, Lucy Hussey-Bergonzi was removed from life support and on her way to recovery, baffling doctors and nurses who had been certain the teen actress was going to die.
Doctors had told Lucy's parents that recovering from the type of brain hemorrhage affecting the "Harry Potter" actress was extremely rare and that they should prepare for the worse.
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Concerned about her daughter's afterlife, Denise Hussey-Bergonzi contacted a priest to baptize her as she lay in a coma on her hospital bed as part of the girl's last rites.
Her family, praying and preparing to say their goodbyes, watched as the priest's holy water fell on Lucy's forehead. Her parents say they saw the teen's arm immediately shoot up in the air.
"At first I thought she might be having a fit but within 24 hours she was taken off all the life support machines and tubes," the girl's mother told the Daily Mail.
Hussey-Bergonzi added, "When I asked the doctors why she had come back to us they said they can't explain how it happened and to this day they don't know how or why she recovered."
That was three years ago, and today 16-year-old Lucy is enjoying life, despite suffering from the occasional headache and partial numbness.
"I do have headaches and there are side-effects to my medication which have made me lose a lot of weight but other than that I feel fine," she told the Daily Mail.
Lucy, whose family lives in east London, had recently filmed a scene for "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" when she collapsed and was rushed to Great Ormond Street Hospital.
Doctors found that Lucy had been suffering from Arteriovenous malformation (AVM), a rare condition usually present at birth.
AVM is when an unusual number of blood vessels form a cluster in the brain. It is not often detected until the vessels burst and cause hemorrhaging, as in Lucy's case.
Part of Lucy's rehabilitation involved having to re-learn how to walk and talk and eat and drink.
Of her recovery Lucy said, "I think it was a miracle, I can't think of any other explanation."
