Andre Romelle Young, better known as Dr. Dre, revealed that his doctors feared he wouldn’t survive the brain aneurysm he was diagnosed with in January 2021. In a recent interview clip shared on Diverse Mentality’s Instagram, the 57-year-old rapper and producer shared more about his experience, explaining he didn’t know how serious it was until after the fact.
“I’m at Cedars-Sinai Hospital, and they weren’t allowing anybody to come up, meaning visitors or family or anything like that, because of COVID,” Dr. Dre said. “But they allowed my family to come in. I found out later they called them up so they could say their last goodbyes because they thought I was out of here.”
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He went on to share what his recovery process was like, explaining: “I was in the ICU for two weeks because of what was going on in my brain. They had to wake me up every hour on the hour for two weeks to do these tests, [which were] basically sobriety tests—touch your nose, rub your heel on your calf. So every hour for two weeks I had to wake up and do that.” The testing routine to monitor his recovery was exhausting. “As soon as they leave, I would try to go to sleep because I knew they were coming back in the next hour,” Dr. Dre said. He also didn’t eat regularly for two weeks during this time, adding, “I was hungry.”
His family and his medical team never told him the reason he was allowed to have visitors. “I didn’t know it was that serious. Seeing my mom and sister, everybody coming in the room—nobody told me. I had no idea,” Dr. Dre said. In fact, he was thinking of home while in the hospital. “I never felt like I was in trouble,” he said. “I felt like I’m just going through procedure, and I’m ready to go home.”
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A brain aneurysm occurs when a thin or weak spot in an artery in the brain balloons or bulges out, per the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). When this bulge develops it fills with blood, which can apply pressure to the brain tissue or nerves, or it may rupture, spilling blood into the surrounding tissue. A rupture can be fatal or it can cause serious health complications such as coma, brain damage, or stroke.
Brain aneurysms can happen to anyone, but they are most common in people between 30 to 60 years old and impact women more frequently than men, per the NINDS. Some people with underlying health issues also face a higher risk, including those with untreated hypertension—which Dr. Dre believes may have been the driving force behind his aneurysm, he told the Los Angeles Times in June 2021.
“It’s a really weird thing,” he said. “I’ve never had high blood pressure. And I’ve always been a person that has always taken care of my health. But there’s something that happens for some reason with Black men and high blood pressure, and I never saw that coming. But I’m taking care of myself. And I think every Black man should just check that out and make sure things are okay with the blood pressure. And I’m going to move on and, hopefully, live a long and healthy life.”
While his recovery was challenging, Dr. Dre said that it surprised him in the end. “That was a really crazy experience,” he said. “And I came out of it stronger.”
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