A STRICTLY Come Dancing star was told she was "lucky to be alive" after a dramatic hospital dash.
The BBC telly favourite, 61, had initially brushed off her pins and needles symptoms in her arm.
Susannah Constantine, 61, has now revealed the stark words of medics during her health crisis last year.
The What Not To Wear expert, who was paired with Strictly judge Anton Du Beke in the 2018 series, told OK! Magazine experts informed her she was "really lucky to be alive."
The Londoner said a neurosurgeon informed her she needed immediate surgery - or risk paralysis or a haemorrhage.
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She added: "They said 'It's Hobson's Choice, if you don't have the operation, you've got a one in three chance of having a brain haemorrhage, being paralysed or having a stroke.
"'If you do have surgery, you've got a one in 10 chance of these same things happening during the operation."
She first gave the indication something was untoward with her health when she posted a picture to social media showing her attached to a drip.
At the time, she wrote: "Withered arm turned out to be symptom of something a bit more serious.
"All sorted now thanks to our ailing but still magnificent NHS where we are lucky enough to have some of the most gifted doctors (and in this case neurosurgeons) in the world. @brainandspine.
"Forever grateful."
A year on, the mum of three has now clarified her condition as venous fistula - which is an abnormal connection between an artery and a vein.
It is a rare condition which can be created surgically or as a result of a congenital or genetic abnormality.
For Susanna's condition, she added to the publication: "I had a health scare and a pretty major operation.
"It was a very rare thing where I had a leak - the arteries were bleeding into the capillaries and trapping the spinal cord, and affecting my brain."
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This explained the pins and needles in her arm - as well as a swollen left eye and tinnitus.
Last year, she also revealed her devastating hearing loss diagnosis.
She candidly told how she began to feel "frustrated" and "embarrassed" as she struggled to hear.
Previously, she told of her fear she would be diagnosed with manic depression like her mum.
Back in 2018, she opened up on from panic attacks and anxiety and credited her husband of 23 years, Sten, with helping her cope.
