Arnold Schwarzenegger's First Words After Emergency Heart Surgery: 'I'm Back'

Arnold Schwarzenegger underwent emergency open-heart surgery on Friday, but it appears The [...]

By Connor Casey

Arnold Schwarzenegger underwent emergency open-heart surgery on Friday, but it appears The Terminator actor was already back to his old self when he woke up.

"[Schwarzenegger] is awake and his first words were actually 'I'm back,' so he is in good spirits," Daniel Ketchell wrote on Twitter.

TMZ reported on Friday that the 70-year-old former California Governor went to Cedars-Sinai Hospital for a catheter valve replacement on Thursday. However, as the procedure is considered somewhat experimental, there were some complications. The actor had to be rushed into open heart surgery as a result.

Ketchell, who works for Schwarzenegger, tweeted out an update hours after the surgery assuring fans that he was in stable condition.

"Yesterday, Governor Schwarzenegger underwent a planned procedure at Cedars-Sinai [Medical Center] to replace a pulmonic valve that was originally replaced due to a congenital heart defect in 1997," Ketchell wrote. "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," Ketchell continued. "We want to thank the entire medical team for their tireless efforts."

Schwarzenegger is actually familiar with having open-heart surgery, as the former Mr. Universe underwent a procedure back in 1997 to have an aortic valve replace.

The action star revealed in a recent interview with TheArnoldFans.com that the next installment in the Terminator franchise, Terminator 6, is scheduled to start filming in summer 2018.

"We are starting to shoot Terminator 6 in June to the middle of October, so I am in that," he said. "I am looking forward to coming back as the T-800 model. It's gonna be great with Tim Miller as the director and Jim Cameron is kind of supervising the whole thing."

Some of his other upcoming film projects include a sequel to his hit 90s comedy Twins with Triplets (which will feature Eddie Murphy joining the cast), a Legend of Conan sequel with him reprising his role as the titular barbarian and the upcoming action flick Kung Fury, which is a feature film version of the action short film.

There are also rumors to Schwarzenegger joining the upcoming western television series Outrider.

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