Please pray for me… my face is paralysed, Justin Bieber tells his 240million followers
POP icon Justin has revealed that he is suffering from facial paralysis after contracting a rare viral condition.
The 28-year-old posted a video on social media saying he has been diagnosed with Ramsay Hunt syndrome, a neurological disorder which has left him unable to move the right side of his face.
It happens when a shingles outbreak – the same virus that causes chickenpox – affects the facial nerve close to an ear.
In the three-minute video posted to Instagram, the Grammy Award winner explained to his 240 million followers why he has been forced to cancel several shows in his Justice World Tour. ‘Obviously, as you can probably see from my face, I have this syndrome called Ramsay Hunt syndrome and it is from this virus that attacks the nerve in my ear and my facial nerves and has caused my face to have paralysis,’ he said.
As he attempted to blink his eyes, the right hand side of his face remained frozen. ‘As you can see, this eye is not blinking,’ he added.
‘I can’t smile with this side of my face, this nostril will not move, so there is full paralysis on this side of my face.
‘This is pretty serious, as you can see. I wish this wasn’t the case but obviously my body is telling me I got to slow down and I hope you guys understand and I’ll be using this time to rest and relax and get back to 100 per cent so I can do what I was born to do.’
He posted an update with a ‘tearful emoji’ saying: ‘Been getting progressively harder to eat, please pray for me.’
The Canadian-born singer said he ‘trusted God’ that the temporary paralysis would end soon, adding: ‘I’m doing all these facial exercises to get my face back to normal.’
According to the world-renowned Mayo Clinic in the US, Ramsay Hunt syndrome usually occurs in people over 60. Most of the symptoms are temporary but in rare cases paralysis can be permanent. Treatment involves anti-viral medication and speech therapy but recovery times can vary from weeks to months.
In March, the singer’s wife Hailey Baldwin Bieber was hospitalised after suffering a mini-stroke. She later underwent surgery to close a hole in her heart.