Finnish WEG team rider Stella Hagelstam suffered a health scare and was hospitalized for eight days with meningitis. The 30-year old was released from the hospital on Thursday.
Hagelstam started to get ill at the 2014 World Equestrian Games themselves, where she competed the 11-year old Austrian warmblood Chopin III stallion (by Contendro x Almox Prints J) for the Finnish team in the Grand Prix. The pair ranked 76th with a 65.500%. After completing the Grand Prix Hagelstam started to feel ill and got a severe headache.
"The headache got worse and worse every day, but I did not think it was something serious, so on Wednesday (27 August) I drove my horse back to Krefeld together with my groom. In the evening I started to feel worse and during the night I decided to check into a hospital because the headache had became so strong and I felt very sick," Stella told Eurodressage. "After a few hours they found out that it was meningitis."
Hagelstam said she was "very "lucky" that she had viral meningitis and not the bacterial version, which can be deadly.
"I had to stay in the hospital for eight days and was finally good enough to go home on Thursday 4 September," Hagelstam explained. "The doctors could not confirm which virus caused the disease."
Hagelstam has returned her home yard Boe Gard in Hinthaara, Finland and feels much better.
"It's good that I did not need to stay longer in the hospital because I'm getting married in two weeks," she added.
Photo © Astrid Appels
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