Dr. Pimple Popper Sandra Lee Says Part of Her Brain Died During Stroke

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Dr. Pimple Popper is detailing a health scare. 

Dr. Sandra Lee recently revealed she had a stroke while filming the second season of her Lifetime show, Dr. Pimple Popper: Breaking Out. While treating patients at her office in Upland, California, the popular dermatologist remembered when her health suddenly changed.

During filming, I experienced what I initially thought was a hot flash,” 55-year-old Sandra explained in an interview with People magazine, published on April 14th. “I became very sweaty and just didn’t feel right.

That evening, the influencer remembered feeling very uneasy and having sharp pains in one leg. She also realized she was struggling to walk downstairs.

And by morning, the left side of her body had been affected by the condition.

She described how her hand would simply fall limp when she extended it. She also realized she was struggling to speak clearly. This led her to worry she might be having a stroke.

A trip to the emergency room and an MRI revealed she had an ischemic stroke. This happens when a blockage or reduction in blood flow deprives part of the brain of oxygen and vital nutrients, as explained by the Mayo Clinic.

“It was completely unexpected,” said Sandra, who is married to Jeffrey Rebish and has two sons. “As a doctor, I recognized the slurred speech and weakness on one side of my body, but I kept thinking, ‘This can’t be real—it must be a dream.’”

“What essentially happened,” she added, “is I had a part of my brain that died.”

Sandra, known for her social media videos of her removing skin growths from patients, stopped making videos and spent two months recovering to get back her ability to move normally.

She explained that she struggles with the strength and control of her left hand, and it worries her when she doesn’t feel like she’s performing at her peak. It’s a scary feeling when she’s not at her best.

She’s also observed that she has a mild slur to her words.

I just realized my speech isn’t quite the same as it used to be,” she said. “It’s making you self-conscious about speaking, isn’t it?”

In hindsight, the symptoms that led to Sandra’s stroke seem so clear. 

She explained that she was struggling with high blood pressure and cholesterol, and felt a lot of pressure from both her patients and her work on the show. However, she tries to view it as a positive wake-up call to prioritize her own health.

Sandra says she’s mostly recovered, although she’s still taking blood thinners and doing physical therapy at home. She also shared that going through this experience really made her appreciate how valuable life is.

Keep reading for more stars who have detailed their health scares.

As someone who’s always been open about the realities of life – and, let’s be real, the bumps and bruises that come with a physically demanding career – I wanted to share something a little personal. During a match in July 2025 against Piper Niven, I took a pretty solid elbow slam. It ended up causing one of my breast implants to shift, which was definitely a surprise! It’s just a reminder that even with all the training in the world, things don’t always go as planned, and sometimes your body throws you a curveball.

She reassured her sister, Bella Garcia, saying they would get the issue resolved eventually. She explained to the doctor that as soon as her career was over, she’d return to address the problem and ensure everything looked its best, because she planned to use them again and they couldn’t appear in their current condition.

Lupita Nyong’o, known for her role in 12 Years a Slave, received a diagnosis of uterine fibroids—non-cancerous growths in or around the uterus—in 2014, the same year she won an Academy Award for her performance in the film.

I was absolutely devastated when she finally shared what she’d been going through! It turns out she’d been battling this privately for over ten years – she actually wrote about it on Instagram, saying she’d been ‘suffering in silence’ all that time. It just broke my heart, but I’m so glad she finally felt able to talk about it.

She explained that many girls are taught to accept period pain as a normal part of being a woman, leaving them to deal with it privately and feeling isolated. It’s something that impacts most of us, yet we often struggle through it on our own.

 

I was so worried to hear that Riley Keough had to be hospitalized back in July 2025! Apparently, she developed a hernia – which is basically a weak spot in your abdominal muscles – and it was caused by wearing really tight pants. It just goes to show, even stars like her aren’t immune to everyday things like that!

Someone messaged Suki on X (formerly Twitter) asking why she hadn’t been posting lately. Suki replied, jokingly suggesting the reason was a hernia she got six months ago from wearing very tight pants, and that she’s been afraid to mention it.

The former star of Beverly Hills, 90210 shared in April 2025 that he was recovering from surgery to fix a nearly ruptured appendix.

Brian shared in an Instagram video that he recently experienced stomach pain, which led him to the emergency room. Doctors discovered his appendix had a hole in it – it hadn’t fully ruptured, but was very close to bursting.

He added, “I’m on the road to recovery. It’s not an easy process. This is my first major surgery.”

During a soccer game against the Seattle Reign on September 14th at Lumen Field in Seattle, a midfielder for Racing Louisville collapsed after only a few minutes of play.

According to Reuters, the U.S. Women’s National Team player was seen slowly sitting down on the field with a teammate supporting her, before suddenly collapsing. Trainers were immediately called to assess her condition.

After receiving initial medical attention on the field, Savannah was taken to a nearby hospital for more tests, the National Women’s Soccer League announced. They reported that she is currently in stable condition and is alert.

Oh my gosh, you won’t BELIEVE this! I just found out that Adam Devine still feels the effects of being hit by a cement truck when he was eleven years old! Seriously, a cement truck! It’s just… mind-blowing that something like that could still bother him all these years later. I’m sending him all the good vibes, honestly. Poor Adam!

“It’s been a terrible experience,” Devine shared on the In Depth With Graham Bensinger podcast in 2025. “I’ve been having spasms all over my body, and doctors recently told me I was facing a life-threatening situation—within the past year, actually.”

He explained that his pain is intermittent, saying, “My body has a few quirks and isn’t quite working as it should.”

A former contestant on The Bachelor had to be hospitalized after experiencing severe back pain. He said he was in so much pain during an RV trip with a friend that he could only get to the hospital by crawling.

He described a strange tingling sensation that still lingered in his knees and toes as of March 2025, sharing this on his Trading Secrets podcast. He explained that just a few weeks or a month prior, he was able to squat 295 pounds, but now he couldn’t even do a squat, or even stand on one leg without falling. He said it felt like he’d had a stroke.

But with the help of a back specialist and some steroids, he added, “We’re on the mend.”

Gina Kirschenheiter, from The Real Housewives of Orange County, revealed that her ex-husband, Matt Kirschenheiter, had a heart attack in March 2025, but he is recovering well.

In March 2025, the actor from 30 Rock experienced a medical issue at a New York Knicks game and had to be helped out of Madison Square Garden.

The comedian later posted on social media to explain that he hadn’t been feeling well due to food poisoning, but was now recovering.

In February 2025, the former Even Stevens star revealed she was accidentally shot in the face during a birthday celebration for her husband, Brendan Rooney. They were on a trip to go clay pigeon shooting when the incident happened.

In an Instagram post, she explained that she was accidentally shot in the face by someone at a party who fired a gun unsafely. Thankfully, @thebrendanrooney quickly helped her, evaluated her injuries, and took her to the hospital. She was hit five times, and one bullet came dangerously close to her right eye – less than an inch away.

The former Kim Possible star shared that a small piece of something is stuck behind their eye. Doctors have advised against removing it with surgery right now, and they’re continuing to monitor the situation, as their vision is currently normal.

The actress expressed immense gratitude for surviving a frightening experience. She shared how much she cherishes her daughters, husband, family, and friends, saying she realized how quickly life can change. She urged everyone to hug their loved ones often, as life can be unpredictable.

Amy Schumer is grateful for the internet, surprisingly, because it helped her discover a health issue. After noticing she looked “puffier” and receiving negative comments online, doctors began commenting on interviews, suggesting she might have Cushing syndrome – a condition often linked to high cortisol levels or steroid injections. This prompted Amy to realize she’d been receiving steroid injections after a breast reduction and C-section. She later learned she had a form of Cushing syndrome that would resolve on its own, and she’s relieved to be healthy. As she shared, receiving this diagnosis and knowing she’d recover was wonderful news.

In December 2024, an AHL player suffered a skate cut during a game and needed 25 stitches to close the wound. After his son made a full recovery, New Jersey Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald told ESPN how relieved they were, saying, “We feel very fortunate, and I wouldn’t want any parent to go through that.”

In March 2022, Hailey Bieber experienced a frightening health scare while having breakfast with her husband, Justin Bieber. She suddenly developed stroke-like symptoms, unable to speak and noticing her face drooping. Although these symptoms eventually passed, she went to the hospital for testing. Doctors discovered she’d had a small blood clot travel to her brain, which they identified as a TIA, or transient ischemic attack. Further investigation at UCLA revealed Hailey had a hole in her heart called a patent foramen ovale (PFO). This hole allowed the blood clot to reach her brain, causing the TIA. Hailey has since undergone a successful procedure to close the PFO and is now recovering well.

It was a really tough year for both Justin and Hailey. Not long after Hailey’s health scare, Justin shared that he was going through something incredibly difficult. In June 2022, he revealed he’d been diagnosed with Ramsay Hunt syndrome, which caused paralysis on one side of his face. He explained it in a video on Instagram – it was so heartbreaking to see him unable to blink, smile, or even move his nostril on that side. He even said it was getting harder and harder for him to eat. As a huge fan, it was really scary to watch him go through that. Thankfully, Hailey shared that he was doing much better and on the road to recovery. She said it was a random and frightening situation, but she was so grateful he was going to be okay. It was such a relief to hear he was improving!

Jamie Foxx recently shared details about the health scare he experienced in April 2023, which he had initially kept private. In his 2024 Netflix special, What Had Happened Was…, he explained that he suffered from a severe headache one day while in Atlanta. Before he could even take an aspirin, he lost consciousness and doesn’t remember the next twenty days.

He initially saw a doctor who gave him a cortisone shot and sent him home, but his sister, Deidra Dixon, was worried and took him to the hospital. There, they discovered he’d had a brain bleed that led to a stroke.

Twenty days after surgery, on May 4th, Jamie woke up in a wheelchair unable to walk. He then traveled to Chicago for rehabilitation and therapy. He expressed his gratitude for all the prayers he received, saying he needed every single one.

The reality TV star shared that she briefly stopped breathing while running a mile during the first challenge on the NBC show.

She shared on the show Fit for TV: The Reality of The Biggest Loser that her memory of the event was fragmented. She recalled hearing a helicopter, feeling like she was floating, and then seeing her grandfather. After that, she remembered only darkness, followed by light, leading her to realize she had died that day.

She explained that her organs were failing and she hadn’t known she had rhabdomyolysis, a condition where the body essentially starts to shut down.

Oh my god, I was absolutely devastated when I read Emilia Clarke’s essay. She filmed all those intense battle scenes in Game of Thrones while secretly battling for her life! It started with a terrible headache at the gym, and she described just collapsing and being violently sick. She knew something was seriously wrong – she said she felt her brain being damaged.

Turns out, she’d suffered a subarachnoid hemorrhage – a type of stroke caused by bleeding around the brain. They found an aneurysm, and she had emergency surgery. She said the pain was unbearable. But it didn’t stop there! While recovering, she started having trouble speaking, just muttering nonsense. Thankfully, that passed after a week, and she was eventually discharged after a month.

But then, a scan in 2013 revealed the growth had doubled in size, and she needed another surgery. She woke up screaming from the pain because the first attempt had failed and she was bleeding badly. They had to open her skull! It was terrifying reading about it. But the best part? She’s now at 100%! I’m so incredibly happy and relieved for her. She’s such a warrior!

Cori Broadus, Snoop Dogg’s daughter, recently shared how thankful she is for her family’s support. In January 2024, she suffered a stroke and immediately reached out to her loved ones, sending a text and a picture. She told TopMob News that everyone quickly came to her aid.

Cori ended up staying in the hospital longer than expected due to other health issues. While she could have gone home after the stroke, she was also dealing with lupus and kidney problems.

Fortunately, Cori is now recovering well. She says she’s feeling great and is regaining her motor skills after a bit of work, but is otherwise doing fine.

Shailene Woodley struggled with significant health issues throughout her 20s. In a September 2024 podcast interview, she revealed she experienced hearing loss, debilitating fatigue, and chronic stomach pain, leading to a confusing array of diagnoses. Determined to find answers, Woodley combined traditional medical care with holistic and herbal remedies. This search for well-being spanned a decade. The physical discomfort led to deeper issues, including fear of food and struggles with body image, identity, and feeling comfortable in her own body. Ultimately, Woodley’s health improved, and she is now happy to report she is very healthy and feels well.

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2026-04-14 18:18