Arnold Schwarzenegger Almost Died After Doctors Made A Mistake And Poked Hole In His Heart During Surgery

Arnold Schwarzenegger has shared his near-death experience when doctors committed an error during his heart surgery.

Despite his image as an almost invulnerable figure, Arnold Schwarzenegger is, in fact, just as human as the rest of us. He has a remarkable story that underscores this fact.

YouTube/The Pump

In a recent YouTube video for The Pump, the 76-year-old recounted his frightening encounter during his third open-heart surgery.

The ex-governor of California described how he was about to start shooting "Terminator: Dark Fate" in 2019, the sixth installment in the Terminator series. This was just a few months after his surgery, so his aim was to 'change his focus' and find a way to leave the hospital as soon as he could.

YouTube/The Pump

“I remember when I had my open heart surgery, the third one, which was just a few years ago just before we started Terminator 6," the actor said.

“I was really freaking out. 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 continued to describe what was initially intended as a straightforward, non-invasive procedure turned into a more complex situation when his medical team 'made an error and inadvertently pierced the heart wall'.

Indeed, this unfortunate incident led to the doctors having to perform emergency surgery promptly in order to halt internal bleeding, a situation that had the potential to be life-threatening.

“The bottom line is, you cannot roll the clock back. It was a disaster. I was in the middle of a disaster,” Schwarzenegger added.

“So now, how do I get out of it? You have to shift gears. Collect yourself, shift gears and say, ‘OK, what I need to do now is get out of this hospital.'”

But like any pro athelete and actor, Schwarzenegger was keen to get back up and running, with him recalling: “I even called my buddies in and I said, ‘You guys have to fire me up'."

YouTube/The Pump

“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.”

In typical Arnie fashion, he was able to recover in time to begin preparation for filming, explaining: “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.”

"I had to be in shape, I had to move around, run around, lift things up, do the fight scenes.”