LOS ANGELES — Arnold Schwarzenegger is in good spirits as he recovers from heart surgery in a Los Angeles hospital. The 70-year-old “Terminator” actor and former California governor underwent a scheduled procedure to replace a valve on Thursday.
His spokesman Daniel Ketchell says he played with one of his old action movie catchphrases when he regained consciousness and announced, “I’m back.”
Ketchell said Saturday in an email Schwarzenegger “continues to be doing very well, in good spirits, and recovering.”
The pulmonic valve originally was installed in 1997 for a congenital heart defect and had to be replaced.
Schwarzenegger had a motorcycle crash that left him with several broken ribs in 2001. He had a hip replaced and rotator cuff surgery in 2003. He broke his right femur in a skiing accident in 2006.
“It was starting to not really be heavily symptomatic, but he’d get a little tired in the afternoon; but that was it. It wasn’t at the point where the doctors said it’s time now. But it was at the point where with his schedule, it made sense,” Ketchell told CBS News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook ahead of the surgery.
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