FEAR FOR HEART SCARE ARNIE
Hollywood legend in emergency op
ARNOLD Schwarzenegger has undergone emergency open heart surgery.
The 70-year-old Terminator star went under the knife “for several hours” after an earlier operation failed.
Last night fans were praying for the Hollywood legend.
One said: “He always seemed invincible to me. He’ll be back!”
Arnie, a former governor of California, went into the Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles on Thursday for a catheter valve replacement procedure.
But medics became concerned it had not worked and feared there could be complications if they did not act immediately. Former bodybuilder Arnie, who won the Mr Olympia title seven times, has suffered from heart trouble for decades.
In 1997 surgeons replaced a defective aortic valve in his heart.
Arnie was born with a malformed heart valve and opted to have a replacement made from his own tissue.
Speaking at the time, Arnie said that his ticker trouble was congenital and had affected generations of his family.
He insisted that the surgery was unrelated to steroid use in the 1970s during his time as a professional bodybuilder. Writing in 1977, before steroid use was illegal, he revealed: “Anabolic steroids were helpful to me in maintaining muscle size while on a strict diet.”
In 2012 he confessed he hid the operation from his wife Maria Shriver who was pregnant at the time with the couple’s youngest child, Christopher.
Arnold said: “That’s the way I handle things. And it has always worked. But it’s not the best thing for people around me because some information I just keep to myself.”
Reports say that the actor and politician is in a stable condition after the surgery.
One fan tweeted: “Prayers up to Arnold Schwarzenegger.”
Another said: “Stay strong big man and we all wait for #illBeBack.”
And another tweeted: “I will pray for you Schwarzenegger so that you have a speedy recovery and get well as soon as possible.”