Lifestyle Health Hailey Bieber Thanks Fans for Their 'Kind Messages' After Explaining Her Mini Stroke "Having that shared journey with so many has made all of this feel less scary," the model said By Julie Mazziotta Julie Mazziotta Twitter Julie Mazziotta is the Sports Editor at PEOPLE, covering everything from the NFL to tennis to Simone Biles and Tom Brady. She was previously an Associate Editor for the Health vertical for six years, and prior to joining PEOPLE worked at Health Magazine. When not covering professional athletes, Julie spends her time as a (very) amateur athlete, training for marathons, long bike trips and hikes. People Editorial Guidelines Published on April 28, 2022 05:26PM EDT Share Tweet Pin Email Hailey Baldwin Bieber is thanking her fans for "all the kind messages" after she shared a lengthy video detailing the mini stroke and heart procedure she dealt with in March. The 25-year-old model talked about her March 10 hospitalization for the first time in a 12-minute YouTube video Wednesday, explaining that she had stroke-like symptoms caused by a blood clot in her brain. Baldwin Bieber was later diagnosed with a patent foramen ovale or PFO, a small opening in the heart that didn't close the way it should after birth, which doctors said caused the blood clot to move from her heart to her brain, and led to her mini stroke. She underwent a procedure to close the PFO which went "very smoothly," Baldwin Bieber said, and she's now fully recovering. For more on Hailey Bieber, listen below to our daily podcast PEOPLE Every Day. On Thursday afternoon, Baldwin Bieber shared her gratitude to her fans. "Thank you for all the kind messages, and thank you everyone who reached out after yesterday's video," she posted on her Instagram Story. "Hearing so many people share their experiences and having that shared journey with so many has made all of this feel less scary. 🦋 🤍" Hailey Bieber. Hailey Bieber/Instagram In her video, Baldwin Bieber said that she wanted to share the story in her "own words" after getting questions about her hospitalization. The morning of her mini stroke, she was eating breakfast with husband Justin Bieber when she started feeling a "weird sensation" in her right arm and numbness in her fingertips, and found she "couldn't speak." "The right side of my face started drooping, I couldn't get a sentence out," she said. "Immediately, I thought I was having a stroke." Baldwin Bieber was rushed to the hospital, and by the time she got there she "was pretty much back to normal" and able to talk and use her arm. Testing showed that she no longer had any stroke symptoms or damage to her brain, which meant she had a TIA – a Transient Ischemic Attack, often called a mini-stroke. Doctors told Baldwin Bieber that she had a blood clot that limited the oxygen to her brain for a period of time, and the clot could have been caused by three things — that she recently started taking birth control without speaking to her doctor and has a history of migraines, which birth control can affect; that she recently had COVID-19 and that she had been traveling "from Paris and back in a really short amount of time." In combination, those three things likely caused a "perfect storm" that led to her mini stroke. During a follow-up appointment, doctors diagnosed Baldwin Bieber with the PFO, and determined that it was a Grade 5 — the "highest grade" possible, and the hole in her heart measured between 12 and 13 millimeters. To fix it, doctors inserted a small, button-like object through the femoral vein in her groin, and eventually her heart tissue will grow back around the closure device. Baldwin Bieber is now taking aspirin and blood thinners daily as she heals, but said she's ready to move on. "The biggest thing I feel is I just feel really relieved that we were able to figure everything out, that we were able to get it closed, that I will be able to move on from this really scary situation and just live my life," she said.