Which disability does Love Island's Patsy Field have? Details explored

Love Island, UK's popular dating reality show, is currently airing season 11. One of the contestants who appeared on the ITV show was Patsy Field who was eliminated from the island on day 10.

As per Cleveland Clinic, Erb Palsy or Erb-Duchenne Paralysis is a disability that causes muscle weakness in the arm or shoulder. It can either be a birth defect or caused due to an injury. The website states that it is "most common" in infants who injure their shoulders during delivery.

"Erb’s palsy occurs in 0.9 to 2.6 per 1,000 live births or nearly 12,000 cases per year. It's most common in larger infants who need to be pulled out during delivery because they’re stuck."

Prior to entering the show, the islander spoke to Radio Times about her upcoming appearance and opened up about having Erb Palsy. Patsy said she was "really looking forward" to talking about her disability and hoped viewers would understand it better.

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Love Island's Patsy Fields opens up about Erb Palsy

The Love Island season 11 contestant Patsy Fields was one of four people to appear on the show with a disability. The cast member spoke about her disability ahead of the show as well as while on the ITV dating show.

While speaking to Radio Times, she opened up about wanting to spread awareness and connect with an audience who may be going through something similar. Patsy said:

"I'm really hoping that there is going to be people all over the country and wherever else who have got similar things or a lot of people with this exact same condition, who will see me doing something like this and be like, 'Wow, OK, I never thought that I would ever go for something like that, and she's doing it and she's so confident and she's very body confident. And I can be the same. And I could do things like that as well."

The Love Island season 11's eliminated contestant elaborated on living with a disability and said it was a part of who she was. Patsy noted that she had several operations, muscle transplants, and nerve transplants. However, she said she'd accepted this was just a "small part" of who she is.

As per Cosmopolitan, Patsy said that her disability didn't define who she was but made her a "little different." She added that although she had learned to "get on with it" having Erb's Palsy never held her back.

The cast member got candid about her journey with the disability and said that she got stuck during birth and the hospital did some damage while "pulling and pulling" trying to "yank" her out."

"I was a normal, happy, healthy baby in my mama's womb and the hospital f***ed up and gave me a disability. I should have been a cesarean birth, but the midwife thought she could do it and she couldn't – I was such a big baby, I was almost 11lb, a normal baby is like 7lb."

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Patsy's Love Island journey

The season 11 contestant entered the villa on day one and paired up with Ayo Odukoya after the cast ranked each other from most to least dateable. On Day 5, Patsy Fields was coupled up with Munveer Jabbal.

Soon after, the female cast member found herself in the bottom after receiving the least number of votes from the public and was voted by the male cast members of Love Island season 11.

Patsy was the fourth person with a disability to appear on Love Island. The first person, Hugo Hammond, a contestant with Congenital Talipes Equino-Varus, participated in the show in 2021.

The following year, Tasha Ghourhi became the show's first contestant with a cochlear implant followed by Ron Hall in 2023, who was partially blind.

Love Island airs new episodes every day on ITV2 at 9 pm.