Arnold Schwarzenegger Has Undergone An Emergency Open-Heart Surgery After a Failed Valve Replacement Procedure, It was Reported on Friday.
TMZ, which broke the news, citing sources close to the 70-year-old Terminator star, said the former governor of California went to Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles on Thursday to have a scheduled catheter valve replacement.
The procedure is said to be risky, and the seven-time Mr Olympia winner developed complications, leading to an emergency open-heart surgery that reportedly lasted several hours.
As of late Friday morning, his condition following the operation was described as stable.
The veteran action star went in for surgery in 1997 to replace an aortic valve. According to the American Heart Association, the valve closes off the lower left chamber of the heart that holds the oxygen-rich blood before it is pumped out to the body, and it opens to allow blood to leave the heart.
‘I’ve never felt sick or had any symptoms at all, but I knew I’d have to take care of this condition sooner or later,’ Schwarzenegger said in a statement after the operation, according to the Los Angeles Times. ‘I said to the doctors, “Let’s do it now, while I’m young and healthy.” They agreed this was the way to go.’
Aortic valve replacement is a procedure in which a patient’s leaky, or partially block aortic valve is replaced with an artificial heart valve.
The actor’s spokesperson said a the time that he had a congenital, hereditary condition that had nothing to do with steroid, which Schwarzenegger had admitted to using during his time as a world-class bodybuilder.