The first words Arnold Schwarzenegger reportedly said after waking up from emergency surgery this week were true to form: “I’m back.”
A representative told Fox News the information. The “I’m back” phrase is from “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines” while his “I’ll be back” phrase from “Terminator” and its sequel, “Terminator 2: Judgement Day,” is among the most famous in movie history.
“Schwarzenegger underwent a planned procedure at Cedars-Sinai to replace a pulmonic valve that was originally replaced due to a congenital heart defect in 1997,” a spokesperson for the star said in a statement, Fox reported.
“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. 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.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife, Maria Shriver, during a Global Climate Summit this month in Los Angeles. (Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images)
TMZ broke the news of the actor and former California governor’s condition on Friday.
Schwarzenegger went under the knife to replace his aortic valve in 1997. “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,” he said in a statement, reported the Los Angeles Times at the time. “I said to the doctors, ‘Let’s do it now, while I’m young and healthy.’ They agreed this was the way to go.”
In 2012, on “60 Minutes,” the actor said that his doctor told him that he was “crazy” to keep the 1997 operation a secret from his wife.
“He said, ‘Your wife is pregnant, what do you mean you are not going to tell her?'” he said, E! News reported. “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.'”
Jack Phillips is a breaking news reporter with 15 years experience who started as a local New York City reporter. Having joined The Epoch Times' news team in 2009, Jack was born and raised near Modesto in California's Central Valley. Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/jackphillips5
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