Arnold Schwarzenegger is back — and he said he nearly bled out during his third open heart surgery due to his doctors’ detrimental mistake.
The famous actor and former California governor revealed in an August YouTube video that he nearly died on the operating table a few years ago, before filming “Terminator 6,” when his doctors accidentally poked through his heart wall.
“I was really freaking out,” Schwarzenegger said. “I woke up and all of a sudden the doctors were in front of me saying, ‘I’m so sorry, but it was unlike what we planned.’”
Schwarzenegger said that internal bleeding forced doctors “to open [him] up very quickly to save [his] life” after botching what was supposed to be a simple, “non-invasive” procedure, Page Six reported. (RELATED: Arnie Fought With James Cameron Over The Most Iconic Line Of His Career)
“‘We made a mistake and poked through the heart wall and therefore we had internal bleeding,'” he said, recounting his doctors’ explanation.
“Well great, this is really great news,” he recalled sarcastically. “It’s a disaster, I was in the middle of a disaster.”
Recovery was a slow process, requiring him to start by walking just 10 steps each day, then walk short distances around the hospital.
“I looked like an idiot 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,” Schwarzenegger said.
The former bodybuilder was eager to exercise and determine to exit the hospital as soon as possible, according to his remarks in the video. He said he relied on his “support system” as he recovered.
“I wanted to get really going with the exercise, get out of the hospital as quick as possible, and then get going with the training again,” Schwarzenegger said. “I had to be in shape, I had to move around, run around, lift things up, do the fight scenes.”