Arnold Schwarzenegger was "really freaking out" when doctors accidentally poked through his heart wall
The Terminator actor, who was born with a congenital heart defect, has had three open heart surgeries in his lifetime
Most of us would probably use a different set of words than “really freaking out” to describe the feeling of surgeons accidentally creating a life-threatening tear in our heart wall during what was supposed to be a non-invasive surgery. Something a lot closer to AHHHHH or, maybe, every swear word in the English language. But then again, most of us aren’t former professional bodybuilder, California governor, and Terminator actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, for whom this was kind of just another bump in the road.
Schwarzenegger detailed the harrowing experience of his third open heart surgery in a recent YouTube video, which he says occurred “just a few years ago, just before we started Terminator 6.”
“I was, like, really freaking out,” the actor, who was born with a congenital heart defect called aortic stenosis, recalled. “I woke up all of a sudden and the doctors were sitting in front of me saying ‘I’m so sorry, but unlike what we planned, which was non-invasive surgery… we made a mistake and poked through the heart wall.’”
This mistake, which caused internal bleeding and necessitated immediate, emergency surgery, almost cost the former politician his life. “I said, ‘Well, great! This is really great news. I mean, Jesus,’” the actor recalled. Still, he was somehow able to maintain a far more positive attitude than most of us could muster for much less. “The bottom line is you cannot roll the clock back,” he continued. “I was in the middle of a disaster, so now it’s ‘how do I get out of it?’ You have to collect yourself and shift gears.”
Schwarzenegger’s first goal was to get out of the hospital, which he said he accomplished by forcing himself to get up, start walking, and maintain an exercise routine, which apparently helped him in two major ways. First, if he didn’t exercise his lungs, the doctor said he could get pneumonia and die. Second and equally as serious, he had to be in shape to “run around, lift things up, and do the fight scenes” for Terminator 6, which he started filming just three months later (!!!).
“We did it because I had a positive attitude, I knew exactly how I’m going to get there, [and] I had the support system because none of this we can do by ourselves,” he concluded. Normally this kind of motivation inspiration might be grating, but when it’s coming from someone like Arnold Schwarzenegger, we simply have to listen.