Arnold Schwarzenegger Heads Home After Open-Heart Surgery

Arnold Schwarzenegger
Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images

The 70-year-old actor underwent surgery last week.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is continuing his recovery at home. 

The 70-year-old actor headed home from the hospital on Friday after undergoing heart surgery, according to his spokesman, Daniel Ketchell. 

"Update: @Schwarzenegger is headed home!" Ketchell tweeted on Friday morning, adding, "He was released just before I sent that update and he is currently recovering at home in fantastic spirits." 

Schwarzenegger underwent open-heart surgery last week, after his scheduled catheter valve replacement procedure at Cedards-Sinai in Los Angeles could not be performed. According to Ketchell, doctors went in to replace the pulmonic valve from a 1997 procedure that was put there due to a congenital heart defect. 

"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,” Ketchell said in a statement shared on Twitter last week.

"During that a 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,” he added. “Governor Schwarzenegger’s pulmonic valve was successfully replaced."

On Monday, Schwarzenegger gave his fans a health update on how he was doing following the unexpected procedure.

“It’s true: I’m back!” he wrote. “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. Thank you to the doctors & nurses. And I’m truly filled with gratitude for all of the kind messages.”

See more on Schwarzenegger in the video below. 

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