Dr. Sandra Lee, best known for starring in and executive producing TLC’s Dr. Pimple Popper series, says she suffered a stroke while filming her show in late 2025.
The Queens-born dermatologist, 55, told People she was seeing patients at her Southern California practice while filming the second season of Dr. Pimple Popper: Breaking Out on Nov 20, when she started displaying symptoms of what an MRI confirmed was an ischemic stroke.
Lee recalled experiencing “what I thought was a hot flash. I got super sweaty and didn’t feel like myself.” That night, she had “shooting pains” in one of her legs, and “a tough time walking down the stairs,” followed the next morning by her hand “just slowly collaps[ing]” when she held it out.
At that point, Lee also “had a tough time articulating and just enunciating,” and wondered whether a stroke was to blame — which was ultimately confirmed by an MRI during a trip to the emergency room.
“It was just a shock,” Lee told People. “As a physician I couldn’t deny that I had slurred speech, that I was having weakness on one side, but I was like, ‘Well, this is a dream, right?’ … I had a part of my brain that died.”
Lee says neither her blood pressure — a top risk for ischemic strokes, or clots, per the American Stroke Association — nor cholesterol had been “under control” at the time. She was, at that point, also under “a lot of stress … dealing with my patients and the show.”
Production of the series, which returns next Monday, was paused during the two months of physical and occupational therapy Lee attended prior to getting back to work in January.
“In Asian cultures in particular they don’t tell people they’ve had a stroke because it can be seen as a sign of weakness,” she said. “I want to get the word out that if you have symptoms like I had, make sure you see your doctor.”
Lee is currently taking prescribed blood thinners and is still undergoing physical therapy at home, though she feels “pretty much back to normal” by this point. Her doctor too said Lee is “lucky,” with “her symptoms … pretty much resolved.” – New York Daily News/Tribune News Service
