'Botched' Dr. Terry Dubrow's Lifesaving Advice After Medical Crisis, Thanks Heather

Dr. Terry Dubrow gets emotional thinking about how his wife, Heather, sounded the alarm when he suffered subtle, stroke-like symptoms, and were it not for an argument and her persistence, Terry might not be here today.

The "Botched" star was on "TMZ Live" Wednesday to give us the blow-by-blow on what went down last Thursday at L.A.'s famed restaurant, The Ivy. Terry says he briefly started to slur his speech, which deeply concerned his spouse.

As Terry explains, Heather insisted on calling 911, which infuriated Terry -- he didn't think it was a big deal. An ambulance came, checked him out and said he was ok, but that wasn't good enough for Heather ... she insisted he get checked out at a hospital.

He made a rash decision to head home alone, but Heather didn't stop pestering him, and even got their circle of doctor friends to hound Terry and convince him to get to a hospital.

As we reported ... Terry was diagnosed with having suffered a transient ischemic attack (TIA) which can be a precursor to a full-blown stroke.

Not just that, but doctors found a patent foramen ovale (PFO) -- a heart condition which can be incredibly dangerous. So, long story short, it was well worth his while to seek immediate medical treatment.

This is not lost on Terry whatsoever ... in fact, he's incredibly grateful to Heather -- and says she quite literally saved his life that night, despite his protests and insistence he was fine.

He's giving her major props in this interview, and it sounds like she deserves all the credit in the world. Terry also tells us the lesson he learned -- it's pretty fascinating.