Arnold Schwarzenegger Recalls Tough Recovery After the 'Disaster' of Third Open Heart Surgery: 'I Was Freaking Out'

Arnold Schwarzenegger describes the complications he experienced after his third open heart surgery, just months before he filmed 'Terminator 6'

Arnold Schwarzenegger is finally opening up about undergoing open heart surgery for the third time.

In a YouTube video, the 76-year-old shared the first photos of his recovery from the surgery, which he had just months before filming Terminator 6, which premiered in 2019. The actor gave insight into his difficult recovery after the procedure had a few complications.

“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,” he recalled in the clip. “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.’”

The former California governor explained that the procedure was supposed to be non-invasive, but the doctors made a mistake that caused internal bleeding and they “had to open me up very quickly to save my life.”

Related: Arnold Schwarzenegger Undergoes Heart Surgery, His Second Cardiac Operation in 2 Years

Calling the entire situation a “disaster,” Schwarzenegger said he was able to get his health back on track by keeping a positive mindset throughout his recovery.

“The bottom line is, you cannot roll the clock back. It was a disaster. I was in the middle of a disaster. So now how do I get out of it? You have to shift gears,” he said. “Collect yourself, shift gears and say, ‘Okay what I need to do now is get out of this hospital.’”

In order to do so, Schwarzenegger said he made small strides, starting with just getting out of bed and walking 10 steps. Eventually he started walking around the nurses station at the hospital and then moving onto longer distances.

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Related: Arnold Schwarzenegger's First Words After Open Heart Surgery: 'I'm back'

“I even called my buddies in and I said, you guys have to fire me up,” he added, sharing clips of how they motivated him to get up and walk the hallways of the hospital each day.

“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,” Schwarzenegger said.

The former pro bodybuilder admitted that he really wanted to get back into exercising and training and get out of the hospital as quickly as possible because he was going to start filming Terminator 6 soon and he needed to be back in the best physical condition.

“I had to be in shape, I had to move around, run around, lift things up, do the fight scenes,” Schwarzenegger said. “And we did it because I had a positive attitude, I knew exactly how I was gonna get there, I had the support system — because none of this we can do by ourselves — and when I started shooting Terminator 6 I was all back together again.”

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