Derek Hough and Hayley Erbert appear on “DWTS” After Brain Bleed

The Oct. 15 episode of “Dancing With the Stars” was “Dedication Night,” which meant the tears were already flowing… and then Derek Hough and his wife Hayley Erbert took the floor.

The couple celebrated their return to the ballroom with an emotional number to “Beautiful Things” by Benson Boone, marking Erbert's first return since her emergency craniectomy.

Before the routine, the “DWTS” judge explained that just three months after the couple's wedding in August 2023, while the two were on their joint Symphony of Dance tour, their lives “screamed to a devastating halt.” ”

“I was on stage and she was supposed to come out. The stage manager walked out and just said, “Hey, she's not coming on stage.” She was on the side of the stage having severe seizures and basically dying. It’s really hard to put it into words other than just pure fear,” the longtime pro-judge said in a video package that aired Tuesday night.

Erbert was hospitalized for an emergency cranial hematoma.

“The doctor came to me and said, 'She has a severe brain bleed, so we need to operate immediately,'” Hough said, choking back tears. “He said that she might not make it and that even if she did, she wouldn’t be the same person. They told me that you basically lost the person you knew… I just remember lying on the hospital floor just begging. I thought to myself: Please don’t go.”

He said she was “unrecognizable” the next morning and had 40% of her skull missing. However, she remembered the two of them dancing before she ended up in the hospital, and he was so relieved to have his wife back.

After the couple appeared on the latest “DWTS” episode, Hough shared that after their recovery, the couple was actually able to dance on stage in front of doctors and nurses in Washington, DC.

“Afterwards the doctors came up to us and said, 'Hey Derek, this is a miracle.' And I said, 'Yeah, it is.' He said, 'No, Derek, it's a miracle,'” Hough shared Tuesday night. “He really felt how remarkable this woman is, her determination and her spirit. You inspire me so much. She’s incredible.”