Arnold Schwarzenegger Said Doctors Poked Through His Heart Wall During Surgery

Arnold Schwarzenegger says his third open-heart surgery was a “disaster” that had him “really freaking out.”
In a YouTube video posted on August 23, Schwarzenegger said doctors accidentally poked through his heart wall.
Schwarzenegger got back in shape in time to film “Terminator: Dark Fate.”

Arnold Schwarzenegger said that doctors made a mistake during a non-invasive surgery he had a few years ago and poked through his heart wall.

In a YouTube video posted on August 23, the 76-year-old spoke about his third open-heart surgery and how he bounced back from the complications of the procedure — just months before he was due to start filming “Terminator: Dark Fate.”

The former California governor recalled how doctors told him that they had to open him up to save his life because of internal bleeding when they accidentally poked through his heart wall during the procedure. 

“I was really freaking out,” Schwarzenegger said. “I said, ‘Well, great. This is really great news.'” 

But despite his shock, Schwarzenegger decided that the only thing he could do was to focus on his recovery because “you cannot roll the clock back.”

“I was in the middle of a disaster,” The “Terminator” actor said. “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.'”

The action movie star documented his recovery journey in the YouTube video, with clips of him walking around the hospital alongside family and friends who came to cheer him on.

“I looked like an idiot, you know, 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 said.

Part of his motivation to get better was driven by his desire to get back in shape in time to film “Terminator: Dark Fate.”

“So I wanted to get really going with exercise, get out of the house as quickly as possible, and then get going with the training again,” Schwarzenegger said. “Because three months later I started with Terminator 6, so I had to be in shape. I had to move around, run around, lift things up, do the fight scenes, and all of these kinds of things.”

Thankfully, he recovered in no time, and he credits his “positive attitude” and “support system” for helping him achieve his goal.

“The way all the guys pumped me up and got me going, and then when I started shooting Terminator 6, I was all back together again,” he added.

The action movie star is known for being passionate about fitness and health. 

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in May, Schwarzenegger revealed that his plan “is to live forever.”

“I still work out every day, I ride my bike every day, and I make movies — show business is another part of my life. I add in my life, I never subtract,” he said. ” I love everything that I do. There’s no retiring. I’m still on this side of the grass, so I’m happy.”