Dr. Dre says he had 3 strokes when he was hospitalized for a brain aneurysm
"It definitely makes you appreciate being alive, that's for sure," he said.
Dr. Dre is opening up about the time he was hospitalized for a brain aneurysm three years ago.
While on James Corden's podcast last week, "This Life of Mine," the record producer and rapper shared that while he was hospitalized for a brain aneurysm, doctors told him that he also suffered three strokes.
Dre said he had no warning signs or symptoms before the day he ended up in the hospital.
"It's just something you can't control and it happens," he said.
In 2021, the hip-hop legend, born Andre Young, announced that he had been hospitalized at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles but didn't give a reason for his hospitalization. But his attorney confirmed to ABC News at the time that Dr. Dre suffered a brain aneurysm.
Dr. Dre told Corden that he woke up one morning and felt something behind his right ear, which he described as "the worst pain I ever felt."
"I got up, and I went on about my day, and I thought I could just lay down and take a nap," he said. "My son had a friend that was there and was like, 'No, we need to take you to the hospital.' So they took me to urgent care."
While at urgent care, Dr. Dre said that he was "blacking out" and "in and out of consciousness" and he ended up in the ICU, where he stayed for two weeks.
"I'm hearing the doctors coming in and [saying], 'You don't know how lucky you are,'" he said. "And I asked questions, like what could I have done to prevent this? And nobody could give me an answer."
"I had no idea that I had high blood pressure or anything like that," he added, saying that he had maintained a healthy lifestyle up to that point.
But doctors told him that the brain aneurysm was most likely hereditary.
"You know, high blood pressure in Black men, that's just what it is," he said. "They call it the silent killer. You just have no idea so you just have to keep your s--- checked."
According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, a cerebral or brain aneurysm is a "weak or thin spot on an artery in the brain that balloons or bulges out and fills with blood. The bulging aneurysm can put pressure on the nerves or brain tissue."
Most aneurisms don’t have symptoms until they start to rapidly grow or rupture. Symptoms of a large aneurysm that is rapidly growing include pain above and behind an eye, numbness, paralysis of the face and double vision and require immediate medical attention.
A ruptured aneurysm can cause health problems such as brain damage or a stroke, according to the NINDS.
The Brain Aneurysm Foundation notes that African Americans and Hispanics are about twice as likely to have a brain aneurysm rupture compared to Caucasians.
Following the experience he had, Dr. Dre said that he has a newfound appreciation for life.
"It definitely makes you appreciate being alive, that's for sure," he said. "When you go through that situation. It's crazy, especially when I was on my way home from the hospital because possibly, that couldn't have happened."
Brain aneurysms can occur in anyone and at any age. They are most common in adults between the ages of 30 and 60 and are more common in women than in men. People with certain inherited disorders are also at higher risk according to NINDS.
Other risk factors develop over time and can include untreated high blood pressure, cigarette smoking, drug abuse and being over age 40.
"It's crazy so now knowing that I had no control over that, it's just something that happened out of the blue, you wake up and you go, 'S---, OK I'm here."
"Good Morning America" reached out to Dr. Dre's rep for comment.
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