Rapper and record producer Dr Dre has said he “appreciates being alive” after revealing he had three strokes while in hospital for a brain aneurysm in 2021.
Dr Dre, whose real name is Andre Young, opened up in a recent interview about his health emergency, which led to a two-week stay in intensive care.
It started with a feeling behind his right ear that he described as “the worst pain” he’d ever endured.
He said he thought he could just “lay down and take a nap”.
But he added: “My son had a female friend that was there and was like, ‘No, we need to take you to the hospital.'”
According to the Brain Aneurysm Foundation, external, approximately 15% of people with a ruptured aneurysm die before reaching hospital.
“I’m hearing the doctors coming in and [saying], ‘You don’t know how lucky you are,'” the Death Row Records co-founder told James Corden’s show This Life of Mine.
At the time, doctors at Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles weren’t normally allowing visitors or family to come up because of Covid-19. But they did let his family in, he said.
“They called them up so they could say their last goodbyes because they thought I was outta here.”
During his treatment, he had to be woken up every hour for testing, but “I didn’t eat for two weeks”, he said.
Dr Dre said his experience “definitely makes you appreciate being alive, that’s for sure”.
The Grammy winner, 59, questioned whether he could have prevented the aneurysm by focusing harder on his physical strength, but learned the condition was hereditary and unpreventable.
“High blood pressure in black men, that’s just what it is. They call it the silent killer,” he explained.
African-Americans and Hispanics are about twice as likely to have a brain aneurysm rupture compared to caucasians, according to the Brain Aneurysm Foundation.
An aneurysm is the enlargement of an artery caused by a weakness in a blood vessel wall.
Most brain aneurysms only cause noticeable symptoms if they burst, leading to bleeding on the brain, which can cause a very serious condition and can be fatal.
