Hollywood action star Arnold Schwarzenegger is in a stable condition after undergoing emergency open-heart surgery, his representatives said on Friday, adding that his first words on waking were “I’m back.”
The 70-year-old actor-turned-activist — famous for the catchphrase “I’ll be back” — was on Thursday in a Los Angeles hospital to have a heart valve replaced and developed complications, his spokesman Daniel Ketchell said.
Doctors rushed the Terminator and Predator star into theater for open-heart surgery, operating for several hours, according to reports in the US entertainment press.
Schwarzenegger, a former Mr Universe, 21 years ago underwent non-urgent heart surgery to have the valve replaced, due to a condition he said was congenital and had nothing to do with steroids.
“That 1997 replacement valve was never meant to be permanent and has outlived its life expectancy, so he chose to replace it yesterday through a less-invasive catheter valve replacement,” Ketchell said. “During that procedure, an open-heart surgery team was prepared, as they frequently are in these circumstances, in case the catheter procedure was unable to be performed.”
“Governor Schwarzenegger’s pulmonic valve was successfully replaced and he is currently recovering from the surgery and is in stable condition,” he added.
Schwarzenegger revealed in his book Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story that he initially kept the first operation a secret from his wife, Maria Shriver, by telling her he was on vacation in Mexico.
He said in an interview with CBS’ 60 Minutes that his doctor told him he was “crazy” when he said he planned to keep the operation quiet from Shriver.
“He said: ‘Your wife is pregnant, what do you mean you are not going to tell her?’” Schwarzenegger said.
“I told him: ‘Here is the plan, I am going to have the heart surgery, you do it quietly, no one knows about it, we do it at six in the morning. Four days later I am out of here and I go to Mexico and I will tell Maria I am down here, a little busy and I am on vacation, when I come back I’ll be tanned and no one will know.’”
The Austrian-born former bodybuilder was voted in as governor of California in a historic 2003 recall vote — but proved the win was no fluke by routing opponent Phil Angelides to get re-elected.
Ketchell confirmed that Schwarzenegger’s first words when he woke up after surgery were, “I’m back,” a play on his trademark film line.
He first used it in 1984’s The Terminator.
Years later, he revealed that he had had difficulty pronouncing “I’ll” and tried, unsuccessfully, to persuade director James Cameron to change the line to “I will be back.”
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