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Arnold Schwarzenegger has undergone emergency open-heartsurgery. The 70-year-old actor went to Cedars-Sinai hospital in L.A. for a cathetervalve replacement on Thursday, March 29, according to TMZ. However, the starexperienced complications during the somewhat experimental procedure when thevalve replacement failed. Doctors then quickly decided to perform emergencyheart surgery.
Arnold was just abroad in Australia prior to the surgery Photo: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images
Three days later, the Terminator actor broke his silence on the operation. "It’s true: I’m back! I went to sleep expecting to wake up with a small incision and woke up with a big one – but guess what? I woke up, and that’s something to be thankful for," he wrote on Twitter on April 2. "Thank you to the doctors & nurses. And I’m truly filled with gratitude for all of the kind messages.”
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This is not the first time the former Governor of California has hadheart surgery. In 1997, Arnold went under the knife to have an aorticvalve replaced. After breaking six ribs in a motorcycle accident, the Celebrity Apprentice host later openedup about the surgery in 2001. “It was very painful, much more painful than the heart surgery,” he said at the time. “A rib breaking is, like, the worst.” The father of five was in a second motorcycle crash in 2006, but walked away then with only a few minor injuries.
Arnold with his children and ex-wife Maria Shriver Photo: Phillip Faraone/Getty Images
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Arnold recently returned from a trip to Australia. The actor took part in the Run for the Kids charity race in Melbourne on March 18. He was in town for the Arnold Sports Festival Australia that hosted a variety of events. "This will be the biggest ever, 35 different sports, not just bodybuilding, power building and the world’s strongest men competition," he told reporters Down Under. "It's different Olympic sports."