Arnold Schwarzenegger Reveals That He Almost Died Due To Heart Surgery

Arnold Schwarzenegger recently opened up about his third open-heart surgery, revealing that procedure-related complications almost cost him his life. The 76-year-old action star and former Governor of California revealed this information in a YouTube video and also explaied that he was born with a congenital heart defect, which has required multiple procedures over the years including two previous surgeries.

What did Arnold Schwarzenegger say about his third heart surgery?

In a recent YouTube video, Arnold Schwarzenegger explained that he had to undergo a valve replacement surgery prior to filming the 2019 Terminator film, Dark Fate. Upon waking up from the surgery, he was informed by the medical team that unexpected internal bleeding had occurred and that they were forced to quickly proceed with an additional surgery to save his life. “I was really freaking out,” the actor shared of the moment.

“I woke up and all of a sudden the doctors were in front of me saying, ‘I’m so sorry but it was unlike what we planned.’ [They said], ‘We made a mistake and poked through the heart wall,’ and had to open me up very quickly. The bottom line is, you cannot roll the clock back. I was in the middle of a disaster. So now how do I get out of it? You have to shift gears. Collect yourself, shift gears and say, ‘Okay what I need to do now is get out of this hospital.'”

Arnold Schwarzenegger

The well-loved star’s full recovery process is documented in the YouTube video, including footage of his first steps in the hospital and his gradual progression towards longer strides around the facility. Schwarzenegger explains in the video that he was inspired to get back into shape for the purposes of filming Dark Fate, providing viewers a glimpse into the scary event and everything that came afterwards. “I looked like an idiot waddling around in the hallways, but the bottom line was I was getting going because the doctors said you have to exercise your lungs because if you get pneumonia you can die,” he explains at one point in the video.