Former Coronation Street star Chris Fountain has said he was left “speaking like a toddler” after suffering a mini-stroke. The actor, who played Tommy Duckworth in the ITV soap, revealed he spent five days in a London hospital after waking up at home unable to speak properly in August.
Chris, who appeared in Corrie from 2011 up until being axed in 2013, said doctors had discovered he had suffered a Transient Ischaemic Attack (TIA) – known as a mini stroke – after a blood clot lodged in his brain.
"I woke up one morning and knew something wasn’t right," the 35-year-old told the Mirror. "My mum called me and I just couldn’t get my words out. I started walking round my house looking at things and I could think what the word was, like television or fridge, but I couldn’t say it.
"I called 111 on my mum’s advice and they sent an ambulance for me, it was so scary. I felt stupid because I knew exactly what I wanted to say to the doctors, but I couldn’t get the words out, I was speaking like a toddler, I was really embarrassed."
The former soap star said he had broken down in tears when doctors informed him he had had a TIA. After several days of undergoing tests at a specialist stroke unit at the Royal London Hospital, medics had determined the actor had a hole in his heart which had caused the blood clot to travel to his brain, triggering the stroke.
Speaking candidly about the incident, Chris, who also appeared in Emmerdale and Hollyoaks, said: "What’s scary is if I hadn’t have called 111 when I did and got to hospital so quickly I don’t know if that clot could have travelled to the wrong place in my brain, I could have died.
"That clot was like a ticking bomb in my head." Chris has regained 90 percent of his speech but says he still struggles to read aloud and finds himself stumbling over his words at times. He is currently working with a speech therapist in an effort to retrain his brain and is set to undergo surgery. The small op is to patch up the hole and hopefully prevent any more clots traveling to his brain.
Chris took over the role of Corrie's iconic couple Jack and Vera's grandson 11 years after Joseph Aston had a brief spell in the role. It was announced in 2011 that Chris, who is also recognised for his time in Channel 4's Hollyoaks, would be reprising the character with his return coinciding with the departure of actor William Tarmey as Jack.
However, things took a sudden turn as Chris was axed in August 2013 after videos surfaced on the internet of him making rap videos about rape and violence under the alias of "The Phantom". On his dismissal from the Salford-based soap, the Bradford-born soap star stated he had "only happy memories of my time on Coronation Street".
After his axing, the character's remaining scenes were aired before the character departed off-screen with Tommy splitting from Tina McIntyre, played by Michelle Keegan, and choosing a fresh start in the Canary Islands. At the time, an ITV spokesperson said: "Chris Fountain’s contract with ITV has been terminated as a result of the unacceptable comments he made in a number of online clips."
Earlier this year, almost a decade on from his axing , Chris admitted to ending up in "dark places" which caused him to realise he needed to change the way he was thinking. "I've been in some very dark, horrible places," he said on the Mancs on the Mic podcast hosted by former soap star brothers Adam and Ryan Thomas as well as Adam's twin Scott. "I realised I needed to start changing the way I was thinking – otherwise I might not have been here," he added.
Discussing the aftermath of being sacked from Corrie, he recalled: "I was meant to go on This Morning and then got cancelled because they didn’t want me on there. After a while, I was like 'I think I’m going through depression here.'"
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