Bea Priestley Recalls Undergoing Emergency Brain Surgery for a Brain Tumor as a Teen

– During a recent appearance on the Rulebreakers podcast with Saraya, former WWE Superstar Bea Priestley recalled her experience of dealing with a brain tumor and having to undergo emergency brain surgery in her teens. Below are some highlights (via WrestlingInc.com):

Priestley on how she began having seizures at 14: “I was fine until I was, like, 14, and then all of a sudden, I started having these really violent seizures. Like, only at night time…I tried to tell my parents, but because they didn’t know anything about it, they just thought I was having panic attacks. So I was sent to therapy.”

On discovering her brain tumor: “So when we got back to New Zealand, they sent me to a neurologist, and they found out I had a brain tumor, but it was on my skull. So what they think was happening was I was born with it, but as I was growing, when I was in my teenage years, my brain was growing into the tumor. And it was just, like, constant.”

Bea Priestley on undergoing emergency brain surgery: “It got to the point where I wasn’t even allowed to have a job because if I had a seizure crossing the road, then I could endanger myself. I pretty much got house locked. And that’s when my dad…so my dad drove from Wellington to Auckland, which is 10 hours, and he drove there and back to pick me up, drove back the next day. And then, I think they told my neurologist and then, maybe a week later, I had emergency brain surgery.”