Aly Raisman is sharing her “scary” health struggles after being hospitalized twice for stroke-like symptoms.
The Olympian revealed on “Call Her Daddy” Wednesday that she could “barely speak” and was “slurring” when the first incident occurred in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“They’re asking me what my name is, but I can’t remember my name or say what my name is,” she recalled, noting that she was “aware enough” to be frightened alone in an ambulance with two men.
“‘Oh my God, I have two men [here and] I can’t move my arms and my legs,’” the retired gymnast, 30, remembered thinking. “‘I can’t move my body. I can’t speak. … What if they take advantage of me?’”
Raisman, who was sexually abused by former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar, added, “I was, like, still really struggling a lot with PTSD. People don’t realize how much it still lives with you when you’ve been through something traumatic.”
Her second hospitalization happened last year.
“I needed help walking, going to the bathroom,” she said. “They wouldn’t release me because I couldn’t sit up on my own. … It took me so long.”
Raisman pointed out how strange it was to go from “being an athlete and being able to push [herself] so much to being … not even be able to move [her] fingers” and legs.
She had “complete body paralysis” and now has to stay “very on top of” therapy since stress seemingly played a factor.
The ESPN analyst is expecting “a lot of triggers” when she heads to the Olympics in Paris later this month as an official hospitality ambassador.
“I might see someone that maybe didn’t protect me in the past,” she explained. “It’s very complicated.”
Raisman, who has made headlines for her romances with Colton Underwood and more athletes, also spoke to podcast host Alex Cooper about being single at 30.