Coronation Street reveals Betsy’s future after life-changing ordeal
This article contains spoilers for tonight’s (Thursday, July 16) Coronation Street, which has not yet aired on TV but is available to watch now on YouTube and ITVX.
Betsy Swain’s (Sydney Martin) life was turned upside down in an instant this week when she collapsed. After being rushed to hospital and undergoing tests which confirmed she had had a stroke, she suffered a second one, much to the horror of her family.
As a result, Betsy found herself unable to speak clearly, and tonight her doctor explained why.
Having reviewed the test results, the doctor informed Betsy that the stroke had caused aphasia and dysarthria.
She explained that aphasia affects the part of the brain that controls speech, as well as the ability to read and write, which is why Betsy had been struggling to find the right words for what she wanted to say.
Dysarthria, the doctor revealed, is a muscle weakness, in Betsy’s case, on the right side of the body, as well as the face and tongue, which therefore impacts speech.
Fortunately, the doctor seemed hopeful about Betsy’s chances of making a full recovery with speech and language therapy, particularly given her age, though she couldn’t give an exact timeframe.
So, while there is a light at the end of the tunnel, there is still a long way to go for poor Betsy.
‘You understand Betsy’s situation,’ actress Sydney Martin told Metro exclusively. ‘She’s obviously devastated with what’s happened to her. Within the first 24-48 hours, there’s so much going on. Physio can start within those 24-48 hours, because of the right-side paralysis. So, she’s balancing all this, and then to have that on top of this tug of war, and everyone putting their two pence in…’
Horrified by Betsy’s ordeal, it is entirely understandable that Lisa Connor-Swain (Vicky Myers) is looking for someone to blame, and despite Betsy’s protests, that person is Dylan Wilson (Liam McCheyne).
Lisa was devastated when Betsy explained that they had been experimenting with consensual strangulation during sex, which the doctor informed them had ultimately led to her stroke.
‘I remember talking about this with the charities. Even with consent, if someone has been physically injured from it, he is still liable by law and could be charged,’ Sydney explained.
At the end of tonight’s episode, Lisa heads to the police station to report Dylan’s behaviour, while Sean Tully (Antony Cotton) explains to Dylan that choking isn’t as ‘normal’ during sex as he’d been led to believe.
‘You’ve got a teenage girl who has slept with her partner, a very common teenage activity, and as we’ve seen from the statistics, there’s that pressure to not be vanilla or “frigid”…’ Sydney reflected.
‘To put that on Dylan, and seeing Liam play it out, even in Wednesday’s episode, there’s such an air of innocence to it all. In both of their eyes, they’ve done no wrong. They’re just experimenting with something that seems so natural.
‘I mean, the law was only brought in last year that you have to prove your age to watch porn. These are people who have only just turned 18 who would have grown up with access to porn and access to that side of things, and to see sex portrayed in a light that’s not realistic and that’s heightened. So, I really feel for both of them in this situation.’
What does the future hold for Betsy and Dylan?
