Our Presenter and Singer’s Life Changed Overnight: “Dear God, I Could Have Died”

Ivana Plechinger’s life changed forever when she suffered a stroke at just 39. The singer, presenter and writer had never imagined that such an event could happen to her, believing strokes affected only people much older.

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Nothing hurt, I just knew that something terrible had happened.

She has described the moment as frightening and disorienting. She knew she was inside her own home but did not know where she was. Her field of vision had narrowed, and she was unaware that her husband was sleeping only a few meters away. Nothing hurt, she recalled, but she knew that something serious had happened.

“Nothing hurt, I just knew that something terrible had happened,” Plechinger said. After doctors gave her the diagnosis, she understood the gravity of the situation. “Dear God, I could have died,” she recalled thinking. She also said she was urgently referred for an MRI but received an appointment only a month later.

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Dear God, I could have died.

Plechinger has spoken about the experience’s effect on her family, saying she believed her father suffered particularly because of her illness. “I think it was the biggest blow for my father. I think it finished him, because he died of a heart attack several years later,” she said.

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I think it was the biggest blow for my father. I think it finished him, because he died of a heart attack several years later.

Years afterward, she described the stroke as a turning point. She said it forced her to reconsider the way she lived and thought, as well as her priorities, health, stress and relationships. “Exactly 10 years ago, I survived a stroke. Today I celebrate life, happy that I remained in this world for my children and husband, grateful that the stroke hit me hard enough to change everything within me and around me,” she wrote on social media.

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Exactly 10 years ago, I survived a stroke. Today I celebrate life, happy that I remained in this world for my children and husband, grateful that the stroke hit me hard enough to change everything within me and around me.