Emilia Clarke Feels Like She Cheated Death After 2 Brain Hemorrhages

Emilia Clarke is reflecting on her terrifying health battle she says left her convinced she was going to die ... after suffering two brain hemorrhages during her time on "Game of Thrones."

Speaking on the "How To Fail with Elizabeth Day" podcast, Emilia admitted the medical scares completely changed her mindset ... saying every day afterward came with thoughts about how she had cheated death.

The actress suffered her first brain hemorrhage shortly after wrapping 'GoT' S1 -- collapsing during a workout and describing the pain as feeling like "an elastic band just snapping" around her brain.

Even while dealing with the terrifying ordeal, Emilia said she became laser-focused on convincing HBO bosses and the show’s creators she’d recover in time to get back to work on her dream role.

Things got even scarier after her second hemorrhage while living in NYC ... doctors were forced to perform another emergency surgery. According to Emilia, the docs were updating her parents during the operation ... repeatedly warning them they feared she might not survive.

The aftermath was brutal too ... Emilia said she emotionally shut down and became hypersensitive to headaches, constantly fearing another hemorrhage was around the corner.

She even recalled attending San Diego Comic-Con shortly after one surgery while promoting "Game of Thrones" ... thinking to herself, “If I’m going to die, I’ll do it on live TV.”