Derek Hough and Wife Hayley ‘Appreciate Life So Much More’ 1 Year After Her Near-Fatal Emergency

US Weekly

Transcript

00:00I just remember being on stage.

00:02I remember dancing, and then my world just went black.

00:06And then I woke up in the hospital the next day.

00:13I was completely unaware of what had just happened to me.

00:17But I remember dancing with him on stage.

00:19And I do remember being in a lot of pain.

00:22But I just remember being like, hey, we were just dancing.

00:26What happened?

00:28I mean, there really weren't any signs that day.

00:30I was really tired.

00:31But we had just been on a red-eye flight from the Dancing with the Stars finale

00:36in the middle of a tour.

00:37So I was like, I'm just tired.

00:39So I kind of napped a little bit that day.

00:43But nothing that was alarming.

00:45And it was just in the middle of the show.

00:47It was like the second act.

00:50Pretty much in the middle of the second act.

00:51So we were almost done with the show.

00:53I maybe had four or five numbers left.

00:55And then just got an excruciating headache.

00:58And I just kept pushing through, because that's what we do.

01:01The show must go on as dancers.

01:03So I was like, it's OK.

01:05I'll deal with it after the show.

01:06It's fine.

01:07I just have a really bad headache.

01:09And yeah, and I pushed myself until my body was like, nope, you can't do this anymore.

01:14Haley is so tough.

01:16She's so tough.

01:18So for her to be in that much pain, it's, you know, it's something that's like,

01:26bad, you know what I mean?

01:28But then when she actually stopped, I remember being in a room with her alone.

01:32And I went waiting for the get the CAT scan.

01:35I just could sense that.

01:36And then she was sort of unconscious.

01:38And her breathing became almost non-existent.

01:42I kept putting my ear to her head.

01:45And I was like, she's not really breathing properly.

01:48And that's one of the things that happens.

01:50Because when the brain swells up, there's nowhere for it to go except for down the spinal cord.

01:55And that's where the breathing happens.

01:57So essentially cuts off your air supply.

01:58So I remember running out and like telling the doctors to come in and to,

02:02I don't think she's breathing.

02:03And so then eventually they had to put, you know, a tube down her throat.

02:08But it was, yeah, and by the way, we're still, she's still in her costume.

02:15We're still like, just came off stage.

02:18Um, you know, so you go from these crazy highs from, you know, being,

02:25you know, Jessica's first finale and, you know, all this celebration and amazingness.

02:29And then we go on to stay on stage in front of 4,000 people.

02:32And it's just loving what we're doing, loving what we're doing.

02:34And, and then being in the hospital and frantic and just adrenaline and emotions and fear.

02:41And, and then I remember when the doctor said, you seem to go and you need to sleep

02:44because you have a long road ahead of you.

02:46Um, and then I just remember going into, I also, after all that energy,

02:55after all that, um, just hecticness for the past two days,

03:00I remember going to a hotel room and just the hotel room closing behind me

03:04and just being in this quiet, empty room.

03:07And then it just, you know, everything's just like, it's, um, yeah, it was crazy.

03:16I remember Derek, one of the first things after he kind of told me what had happened,

03:21he sat down at the bottom of my bed and we shared this, like,

03:25I think it was our first post that we did together.

03:28And this was like the first piece of information that we shared with everybody.

03:32He said, honey, there are so many people thinking about you.

03:36There's so many people sending you love and prayers.

03:39And that was actually the first time that I started crying.

03:42And I remember just bawling my eyes out and just saying,

03:45you didn't even have to tell me that.

03:47I can feel it.

03:49I felt this sense of just overwhelming love and light.

03:54And it was honestly one of the most spiritual experiences I've ever had.

03:58You kind of only have two choices in a situation like that.

04:02You have the option of just being like, why me?

04:07Why did this happen to me?

04:09Just kind of going down the more negative route.

04:12Or you have, what can I do to get better?

04:15I was pretty much in pure survival mode.

04:17I was like, I knew that I, one, had to be walking.

04:22I had to be back to normal.

04:24Like, I was like, this is this is my only option.

04:26Like, I have to get back to who I was.

04:30But then even more importantly, I wanted to dance again.

04:33I was like, literally, dance is my life.

04:37It always has been.

04:38I've been dancing since I was three years old.

04:40And it's what has brought me so much joy and love.

04:44It literally brought me my husband.

04:46Like, there are so many things that dance has brought me.

04:49And I was like, I have to dance again.

04:51So I think that was a big motivation for me to be like, OK, what can I do to be better?

04:58Like, it is what it is at this point.

05:00And how do I just keep going from here?

05:03And so Derek mentioned earlier that, like, there was a lot of gratitude.

05:07And you think it's kind of weird that you just had brain surgery.

05:11And there's so much that feels wrong in all of it.

05:16But I was finding all the beauty.

05:18I was like, there's so many people that love me around me.

05:22There were beautiful days.

05:24And we had a cardinal coming to our window every day.

05:27There were so many things, so many moments of just beauty.

05:30And I couldn't help but recognize it because I'm like,

05:34I could literally sit in this and just be poor me all day long, every single day.

05:39But I was like, no, there's so much beauty in this life still.

05:43And I want to live for it.

05:44I always say that I feel like I'm like 98%, 99% back to what I was.

05:51But nothing that will hinder me from just doing what I do in everyday life and my career.

06:00In my professional life.

06:03Yeah, I feel like I am pretty much there.

06:06So it truly is a miracle.

06:09And I'm so grateful to be able to do what I love still.

06:14Yeah, no, she's more healed than I am, honestly.

06:18One, dancing together was, for me, it was terrifying.

06:22Because I was, you know, just nervous.

06:25Um, but with that said, that first show back,

06:31you know, I've done so many different types of tours and so many shows, you know, and,

06:36and when she walked out on stage for the first time, man, there were that,

06:44that was like the most incredible.

06:48And I didn't in this show, I kind of like I like present to her and she walks out in

06:53this beautiful red dress and she just kind of like appears and that was always always in the

06:58show. It was just happened to be kind of fit perfectly with what had just happened to in a way,

07:04but the response was just overwhelming.

07:08I feel like it was.

07:10It was amazing.

07:11I mean, yeah, just wow.

07:13It was a feeling that I've I've truly never felt on stage before.

07:17It was it was there are there aren't even words for it.

07:21Like it was just it was incredible.

07:23Yeah.

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