Terry Dubrow broke down in tears as he credited his wife Heather Dubrow with saving his life after suffering stroke symptoms over dinner recently.
The 64-year-old plastic surgeon opened up about his health issues during a remote appearance on Wednesday’s episode of “Watch What Happens Live After Show with Andy Cohen,” while Heather, 54, was a guest on the Bravo talk show.
Terry tearfully said he would not have been alive if Heather had not insisted he go to the emergency room.
“I can tell you that due to an anatomical defect in my heart, I’ve had symptoms of a stroke and I’ll try to say that without crying, but the only reason I’m standing here today and not two meters below ground is because is because “That my best friend and my beloved wife insisted that I go to the emergency room and get checked out,” Terry said.
Then Terry put his hands in front of his face and started to cry.
Tears flow: Terry Dubrow broke down in tears as he credited his wife Heather Dubrow with saving his life after suffering from stroke symptoms over dinner recently
“She saved my life, so that’s just the way it is,” Terry said. “What can I say, I love my wife.”
Heather was about to cry too.
“Don’t do this to me now,” Heather said.
Andy, 55, said what’s interesting about the story is that Terry was having dinner with Heather when he started having stroke symptoms.
“He had a bad episode,” Heather said.
“And you were a doctor, you’re very confident, you understand things that a lot of us don’t know about the human body, but you really fought back for an hour, refused to go to the hospital and kept telling her “I’m fine, I’m fine,” Andy said. “So tell me the lesson here, because you ended up going after all.”
“So I went there and I had a hole in my heart, just like a lot of these young celebrities like Emilia Clarke and Hailey Bieber.” And the lesson here is: if you or someone else has trouble speaking, has a severe headache, or is partially paralyzed , even if this only lasts a minute, as it did for me, until you rule out something else, you have a stroke and only you have a few hours to get to the hospital and dissolve the clot. “Otherwise you can have a major stroke and sixty percent of people die,” Terry said.
“Even though I told her not to embarrass me anymore in front of the passing TMZ bus, this woman in that chair stubbornly followed me in an Uber and called my best friends who are doctors and they convinced me to go to the hospital to go.” Terry said. “And she literally saved my life. And by the way, if she hadn’t listened to me, I would have gotten on a plane to see you, Andy, and I would have gotten more blood clots from that flight and definitely wouldn’t have survived.”
Getting Emotional: “Don’t do this to me now,” Heather said as she started getting emotional
Heart defect: “I can tell you that I have had symptoms of a stroke due to an anatomical defect in my heart and I will try to say that without crying, but that is the only reason I am standing here today and not six feet tall “That’s because my best friend and beloved wife insisted I go to the emergency room and get checked out,” Terry said
Lesson learned: “And you were a doctor, you’re very confident, you understand things that a lot of us don’t know about the human body, but you really put up a fight for an hour and you refused to go to the hospital and you did it “I’m fine, I’m fine,” Andy said. “So tell me the lesson here, because in the end you made it.”
Tight Decision: “And she literally saved my life.” And by the way, if she hadn’t listened to me, I would have gotten on a plane to see you, Andy, and I would have gotten even more blood clots from that flight and definitely wouldn’t have survived,” Terry said
“That’s amazing,” Andy said. “I’m so glad you went to the hospital.”
Andy then told Terry and Heather that their love for each other was inspirational and also stuffed Terry’s show Botched.
“The moment I knew he was fine was when we were in the ER and it was the premiere of Botched and he got them to perform it. “Oh the narcissism is back, we’re good again,” Heather quipped.
Heather also shared details from The Real Housewives of Orange County about whether she felt the other women would use her as a scapegoat when it came to talking about Shannon Beador’s relationship with John Janssen.
“Some people talk about things off-camera and some people talk about things on-camera and bring them into the show to create a storyline that gets the whole world talking, which is worse,” Heather said.
A fan asked Heather why she was speaking out about John, having previously gotten in trouble for talking about Shannon’s past relationship. Heather said she actually tried to avoid talking about Shannon’s ex, David, but it backfired.
Andy asked Heather about her reconciliation with 53-year-old designer Jeff Lewis. Heather said she met him recently and appreciated many things he said to her.
“I enjoyed talking to him and will leave it at that,” Heather said.
During a fun game, Heather admitted it was true that she was once confronted by Disney management for being too sexy when she played the character Miss Lily.
Too sexy: During a fun play, Heather admitted that she was actually once confronted by Disney management who said her performance playing the character Miss Lily was too sexy
Cute smile: Heather flashed her cute smile as she arrived at the WWHL studio in New York City in a little black dress
TV star: The TV star has been an actor since the mid-1990s
Heather and Terry dated for two years before saying “yes” in 1999. The couple welcomed twins Maximillia and Nicholas, who attended college. They also share Katarina, 15, and Collete, 11.
Their daughter Max came out as bisexual, and last year during an episode of Real Housewives, Katarina came out as a lesbian.
Heather joined the cast of The Real Housewives Of Orange County beginning Season 7 in 2012 and stayed on the series until 2016.
After a five-year hiatus, the star returned in 2021 for the show’s 16th and 17th seasons.