Real Housewives Of Miami’s Mama Elsa Is Recovering From A Stroke
August 12, 2013 by Lindsay Cronin
Marysol Patton’s mother Elsa Patton, aka Mama Elsa, has become a fan favorite on The Real Housewives of Miami, but unfortunately, fans won’t be getting to see as much of her during the upcoming third season. In fact, they won’t see her at all until the end of the season and the reason behind her absence is devastating.
Earlier this year, it was revealed that Marysol was only returning to the series as a ‘friend of the wives,’ but the reason behind her being placed into a lesser role was unclear. Since fans had taken to her quite well and loved her mother so dearly, it seemed to be an odd move by Bravo. Now, fans are learning that Marysol was forced to step back from filming to concentrate on her mother after she suffered a stroke in March of this year.
“I received a call from her household staff that they had arrived at the house and found her unconscious on the floor of her bedroom. I immediately called 911 and drove over,” Marysol explained to the Miami Herald of the horrifying moment she found out that her mother had suffered a stroke. “She was shaking and unable to walk or barely sit up and her eyes were fixated staring up to left. The paramedics carried her down the stairs wrapped in a sheet to the ambulance. She was rushed to the hospital for a brain scan.”
At the hospital, doctors informed Marysol that they needed to operate on Elsa immediately to relieve blood from the brain, which Elsa likely developed after her head hit the floor during her fall. ”I had to think fast, but cautiously,” Marysol said. Luckily, her close friend Alexia Echevarria, who had gone through a similar issue with her son Frankie a couple of years prior, was able to help her through the process.
Following surgery, Elsa remained in critical care for a couple of months and once she was released, she moved into a rehab center.
“The production company was very flexible with me and allowed me to film around my schedule which involved hospital visits, coordinating mom’s move back home and my day to day operations of my company,” Marysol says. “I filmed what I could, when I was available in the role of a ‘friend’ of the Housewives.’”
In May, Elsa left the rehab center and returned home where she is finally getting back to her life before the stroke. “Right now mom is at home convalescing with a full-time live-in,” Marysol explains. “It was a difficult road to finally get her home and back to her daily routines, the simplest things we all take for granted daily.”
The Real Housewives of Miami season 3 premieres tonight at 9/8c on Bravo.