Dr. Pimple Popper reveals she had a stroke during filming of season 2
Apr 14, 2026, 3:41 PM
“Part of my brain died,” said Dr. Sandra Lee, the beloved dermatologist known as Dr. Pimple Popper, after revealing that she suffered a stroke last November while filming Season 2 of her Lifetime series “Dr. Pimple Popper: Breaking Out.”
Confession: I love to pop pimples, I love the Pimple Popper show and I love Dr. Lee.
Dr. Lee, 55, was seeing patients at her Upland, California, practice when she started sweating profusely and felt off. She chalked it up to a hot flash and finished filming.
That night at her parents’ house, things escalated. Shooting pains in her leg. Trouble walking down stairs. By morning, her left hand would collapse when she held it out and her speech was slurred. Her father, also a dermatologist, insisted she go to the ER.
An MRI confirmed an ischemic stroke — a blockage had cut off blood flow to part of her brain. “What essentially happened is, I had a part of my brain that died,” Lee told People magazine.
She spent two months in physical therapy before returning to work in January. Lee admitted her blood pressure and cholesterol were not under control and stress played a major role.
Her message: take care of yourself. If a doctor can miss her own warning signs, so can you.
Read more from Dr. Sandra Lee here.
Read more about stroke statistics for women here
