Against all odds, Bret Michaels won The Celebrity Apprentice finale on Sunday night.

Just days after returning to hospital with what was diagnosed as a warning stroke, the 47-year-old U.S. rocker appeared on the live last episode of Donald Trump's reality TV show in New York.

Michaels, noted for the years he spent fronting the band Poison and his own reality TV show, Rock of Love, bested actress Holly Robinson Peete, and received $250,000 US for his charity of choice, the American Diabetes Association.

"They [the doctors] didn't want you to be here tonight," Trump told Michaels. "Are you risking your life being here? This is a lot of pressure."

Michaels replied: "Lately, it seems like just standing up is risking my life."

While undergoing tests this week, the singer learned he has a hole in his heart and faces surgery to correct the condition.

He is being treated with a daily injection of a blood thinner to reduce the risk of clots.

A diabetic, Michaels suffered a brain hemorrhage on April 25, two weeks after undergoing an emergency appendectomy.