Former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is in stable condition after heart surgery, according to his rep.
Schwarzenegger’s spokesperson Daniel Ketchell said on Twitter that the 70-year-old was in “good spirits” after waking up on Friday, with his first words after surgery being “I’m back,” a riff on his famous “Terminator” catchphrase.
Update: @Schwarzenegger is awake and his first words were actually “I’m back”, so he is in good spirits. https://t.co/bJ4pxqS8l6
— Daniel Ketchell (@ketch) March 30, 2018
On Thursday, the actor and former politician underwent a procedure to replace an artificial heart valve from 1997. The surgery was initially reported as emergency open heart surgery, but Ketchell clarified that an open-heart surgery team was simply prepared as a contingency in the event that the procedure was unable to be performed.
“Yesterday, Governor Schwarzenegger underwent a planned procedure at Cedars-Sinai [in Los Angeles] to replace a pulmonic valve that was originally replaced due to a congenital heart defect in 1997,” Ketchell said in the statement. “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-evasive catheter valve replacement.”
Schwarzenegger served two terms as the 38th governor of California beginning in 2003, and has starred in a number of films including the “Terminator” franchise, “Total Recall” and “Predator,” in addition to serving as the host of NBC’s “The New Celebrity Apprentice.”