In a recent interview, Beats Electronics co-founder Dr. Dre revealed that doctors suggested he would not survive his brain aneurysm nearly two years ago.
While talking to expert fitness figure Dolvett Quince on his “Workout the Doubt” podcast, the 57-year-old shared that doctors made an exception amid COVID-19 guidelines to allow his family to say their final goodbye after the possibility of survival appeared unlikely.
“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, but they allowed my family to come in,” he began. “I found out later; they called them up so they could say their last goodbyes because they thought I was outta here.”
He added: “I didn’t know it was that serious, you know? Seeing my mom and my sister and everybody coming in the room. Nobody told me; I had no idea. That was crazy.”
The West Coast rap legend explained that while in ICU for two weeks, “Because of what was going on in my brain.” Dre shared that doctors would “wake me up every hour on the hour for two weeks to do these tests. Basically looking like sobriety tests, like touch your nose, rub your heel on your calf and all that s–t.”
He continued, “So every hour for two weeks, I had to wake up and do that. [I was] tired. As soon as they’d leave, I would try to go to sleep because I knew they’d be coming back in the next hour.”
On Monday, Jan. 4, 2021, the Grammy Award-winning rapper was taken by ambulance to the intensive care unit at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. The next day he provided an Instagram update to his followers.
“Thanks to my family, friends and fans for their interest and well wishes,” he wrote that evening. “I’m doing great and getting excellent care from my medical team. I will be out of the hospital and back home soon. Shout out to all the great medical professionals at Cedars. One Love!!”
The “Forget About Dre” emcee opened up about the aneurysm in a June 2021 interview with the Los Angeles Times, revealing the incident was caused by high blood pressure but that he was “feeling fantastic.”
