Henrik Lundquist (NHL star goalkeeper) story; Aortic valve, root and ascending aorta surgery

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tjay

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NY Rangers star goaltender Henrik Lundquist got Bentall procedure (it seems) a couple of years ago. His story is NOW on Netflix under "Open Heart". Great story to relate to - for emotions, motivation and preparedness - before and after the surgery.

Here's an article as well:
https://russianmachineneverbreaks.c...layer-prepared-him-for-the-fight-of-his-life/

Youtube:
Part 1:
Part 2:

If there are other such stories, feel free to share. Of course this website is full of stories of hundreds, if not thousands, of heroes too :) .. Every story is worth sharing and listening.
 
Arnold is having aortic valve surgery. while he's lying in intensive care, the doctors wake him up and say "we made a mistake, the operation was a failure, we're going to operate on you again". he has open heart surgery twice in 24 hours.

In one scene of the video he says: "The doctors told me that we need to operate on you again, the operation is very risky, the possibility of death is 30%, I was under the influence of medication at that time, I said do whatever you are doing"

In the first operation, everyone's motivation was very good, music was playing in the operating theatre, I went to the operation with a smile. but in the second operation, everyone's face was down, although I was under the influence of medication, I could see that everyone was demoralised.

 
Jeff Lebowski said:
Arnold is having aortic valve surgery. while he's lying in intensive care, the doctors wake him up and say "we made a mistake, the operation was a failure, we're going to operate on you again". he has open heart surgery twice in 24 hours.

In one scene of the video he says: "The doctors told me that we need to operate on you again, the operation is very risky, the possibility of death is 30%, I was under the influence of medication at that time, I said do whatever you are doing"

In the first operation, everyone's motivation was very good, music was playing in the operating theatre, I went to the operation with a smile. but in the second operation, everyone's face was down, although I was under the influence of medication, I could see that everyone was demoralised.

Click to expand...

I've had my reservations about his team/his choices on that for some time. To me its an exact text book reason to not do what he did.
 
tjay said:
NY Rangers star goaltender Henrik Lundquist got Bentall procedure (it seems) a couple of years ago. His story is NOW on Netflix under "Open Heart". Great story to relate to - for emotions, motivation and preparedness - before and after the surgery.

Here's an article as well:
https://russianmachineneverbreaks.c...layer-prepared-him-for-the-fight-of-his-life/

Youtube:
Part 1:
Part 2:

If there are other such stories, feel free to share. Of course this website is full of stories of hundreds, if not thousands, of heroes too :) .. Every story is worth sharing and listening.
Click to expand...

That was good. Thanks

He had good points about having a good mental attitude going into surgery, and also the right attitude facing recovery. One day at a time.
 
Last edited:
Jeff Lebowski said:
Arnold is having aortic valve surgery. while he's lying in intensive care, the doctors wake him up and say "we made a mistake, the operation was a failure, we're going to operate on you again". he has open heart surgery twice in 24 hours.

In one scene of the video he says: "The doctors told me that we need to operate on you again, the operation is very risky, the possibility of death is 30%, I was under the influence of medication at that time, I said do whatever you are doing"

In the first operation, everyone's motivation was very good, music was playing in the operating theatre, I went to the operation with a smile. but in the second operation, everyone's face was down, although I was under the influence of medication, I could see that everyone was demoralised.

Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing that Jeff.

As Arnold explains, he had the Ross Procedure. It failed one day after surgery and he had to get OHS #2 the very next day, as he explains. That interview was 7 years ago, so I'll update his story. In the interview, he says that it's been 19 years since his Ross and he still has both valves in place. About one year after that interview he had OHS#3, when he had his donor pulmonary valve replaced. With the Ross, this will happen eventually. Two years after that he had to get his aortic valve replaced for OHS #4.

In another interview he said he went with the Ross and not a mechanical valve because he was still making action movies. Apparently, someone told him that you can't be active if you have a mechanical valve. Had he gone mechanical, he probably would have been one and done. Now that he has been through OHS#4 I wonder if he is happy that he chose the Ross? He may also face one or more procedures in his 80s, should he live that long.
 
tjay said:
NY Rangers star goaltender Henrik Lundquist got Bentall procedure (it seems) a couple of years ago. His story is NOW on Netflix under "Open Heart". Great story to relate to - for emotions, motivation and preparedness - before and after the surgery.

Here's an article as well:
https://russianmachineneverbreaks.c...layer-prepared-him-for-the-fight-of-his-life/

Youtube:
Part 1:
Part 2:

If there are other such stories, feel free to share. Of course this website is full of stories of hundreds, if not thousands, of heroes too :) .. Every story is worth sharing and listening.
Click to expand...


I gotta try to watch that when I have time. Would like to hear the OHS experience from one of the greatest goalies ever...
 
Chuck C said:
Thanks for sharing that Jeff.

As Arnold explains, he had the Ross Procedure. It failed one day after surgery and he had to get OHS #2 the very next day, as he explains. That interview was 7 years ago, so I'll update his story. In the interview, he says that it's been 19 years since his Ross and he still has both valves in place. About one year after that interview he had OHS#3, when he had his donor pulmonary valve replaced. With the Ross, this will happen eventually. Two years after that he had to get his aortic valve replaced for OHS #4.

In another interview he said he went with the Ross and not a mechanical valve because he was still making action movies. Apparently, someone told him that you can't be active if you have a mechanical valve. Had he gone mechanical, he probably would have been one and done. Now that he has been through OHS#4 I wonder if he is happy that he chose the Ross? He may also face one or more procedures in his 80s, should he live that long.
Click to expand...
Yes, sounds right. Then didn't he get a pacemaker recently too?

One interesting thing about Arnold's case is that his aorta (root, ascending) didn't require fixing (at least based on public information available). And the guy did massive weight lifting for decades as we know. He's lucky in that sense. He was able to realize his bodybuilding, entertainment and the rest of American dream (mainly stemming from lifting weights) before he had to do his very first OHS (at age ~46 I think).

Not all BAV have aorta weaknesses, Arnold may be one great example.
 
Chuck C said:
That was good. Thanks

He had good points about having a good mental attitude going into surgery, and also the right attitude facing recovery. One day at a time.
Click to expand...
Yes, very positive and strong willed guy. His sports background probably helped him.
He did go thru some level of depression afterwards, having to let go of his renewed effort to dial back into NHL through his new gig with Washington Capitals. I think he worked with life coach to overcome that.
His initial recovery was great and he came back to ice quickly, but developed inflammation soon after. His heart was telling him not to push limits then, as he noted.
He's happy and at peace. And why should he not be? Such an accomplished athlete that he was already before his OHS.
 
Chuck C said:
As Arnold explains, he had the Ross Procedure. It failed one day after surgery and he had to get OHS #2 the very next day
Click to expand...
He damaged his Ross procedure according to this article https://www.medpagetoday.com/popmedicine/celebritydiagnosis/89475, which is just a written reference to the video.

In a 2016 interview with journalist Graham Bensinger, Schwarzenegger revealed that the procedure did not go as smoothly as he had hoped. Initially, things seemed to be going well enough that he admitted to getting on a Lifecycle bicycle while still hooked up to all his monitors shortly after surgery
Click to expand...

Apparently he got on an exercise bike right after his surgery causing the autograft to fail, who knows what implications that had on his long term outcome with the Ross overall, not to mention he's Arnold, gotta be harder on any biological option.
 
I recently watched Open Heart, the story behind Henrik Lundqvist. I thought it was pretty well done. A bit triggering but overall in a good way. One topic that resonated and something I hadn’t thought of for a while was the peace and lack of clutter going through your thoughts weeks past surgery. Lots of self reflection. But then life gets in the way and you are back on the same path. For me anyway.
 
Tjay,

Thanks for posting. We watched it the other night after you mentioned it. Since he went to CC, we recognized some of the shots of the clinic. As a sometimes casual hockey fan, I enjoyed that as well.

One thing that stood out for me was the significant difference in his presurgery emotions vs my own. His whole life was his hockey - and deservedly so. So, his emotions were all about returning to play and he had a great deal of anxiety about being able to do that. Unfortunately, it did not work out for him. On the other hand, I was all about extending my life and was anxious, but cautiously optimistic and hopeful. Of course, I have almost 40 years on him and am at a much different stage of life.
 
Croooser said:
Tjay,

Thanks for posting. We watched it the other night after you mentioned it. Since he went to CC, we recognized some of the shots of the clinic. As a sometimes casual hockey fan, I enjoyed that as well.

One thing that stood out for me was the significant difference in his presurgery emotions vs my own. His whole life was his hockey - and deservedly so. So, his emotions were all about returning to play and he had a great deal of anxiety about being able to do that. Unfortunately, it did not work out for him. On the other hand, I was all about extending my life and was anxious, but cautiously optimistic and hopeful. Of course, I have almost 40 years on him and am at a much different stage of life.
Click to expand...
Yes, I agree.

It's helpful to have something else in mind very strongly like he had to have (in order to continue/extend his career) to maintain anxiety levels approaching the surgery. Then you think of brighter side more, and feel more motivated to get it behind.
He did go thru some level of depression afterwards having realized it wasn't going to happen. At least him and Arnold had already accomplished a lot in their chosen sports.
 
I really appreciated that Henrik Lundqvist documentary. He also had Eric Roselli from the Cleveland Clinic on his podcast:


He seems like he went through it – cardioversion after surgery, pericarditis. I also read he has a deal with some pharmaceutical company to raise awareness of recurrent pericarditis… I wonder if he is still dealing with it. https://investors.kiniksa.com/news-...cals-partners-nhl-hall-famer-henrik-lundqvist
 
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