Hayley Erbert ‘Started to Lose It’ While Watching Footage of Her Recovery on ‘Dancing With the Stars’ (Exclusive)

The dancer tells PEOPLE she was ‘flooded with emotion’ watching her journey following her emergency craniectomy in December 2023

Hayley Erbert Hough certainly felt a lot of emotions after returning to Dancing with the stars ballroom.

On Tuesday, Oct. 15, the professional dancer and her husband Derek Hough performed a beautiful, tear-filled choreography to Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things” after an emotional package chronicled the heartbreaking health journey Erbert Hough faced this year.

“When they released the package, that’s when I started to lose it, because I haven’t seen a lot of footage in a while, because I was just focusing on my progress every day,” Erbert Hough told PEOPLE. “And so to come back to that, I was just flooded with emotion.”

Related: Hayley Erbert Opens Up About Returning to Tour with Husband Derek Hough After “Traumatic” Health Crisis (Exclusive)

In December, Herbert was hospitalized with a cranial hematoma during her ongoing tour with Hough and underwent an emergency craniectomy.

In the footage, Hough, 39, said he was told his wife was “basically dying” before the emergency operation. “(The doctor) said she might not make it and that even if she did, she wouldn’t be the same person.”

Erbert Hough told PEOPLE it was “extremely special” to return to the DWTS ballroom after such a tumultuous year.

“This fall has always been the most welcoming energy and it’s been beautiful to be here, to be able to share it with him. And I’m just grateful to be here.”

Related: Derek Hough Reveals the Mantra That Helped Him and Wife Hayley Erbert Overcome Health Issues (Exclusive)

Hough tells PEOPLE that the couple’s performance “was kind of just the beginning of a whole story.”

“We’ve shared some more video and photos of what happened to show us the severity of the situation. But this is just the beginning, and there is so much more to this story and we are very happy to share the rest.

He admits that for a while, “honestly, it wasn’t even a thought like ‘Oh, we’re going to dance again.’

“And then being here, it’s incredible. It’s just hard to put it into words.”

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Erbert says it was “such a traumatic experience” and a “tough time,” but she focuses on “being grateful for even the smallest things.”

She says that gratitude “in those moments (was) so important and so powerful because it brought me to a better place – mentally and physically – just to be grateful for all the things in my life. And I I really have so much to be grateful for, even in a moment like this.”

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Dancing with the stars airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and Disney+ and streams the next day on Hulu.

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