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Henrik Lundqvist announces his open-heart surgery ‘went really well’

By Ian Oland

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January 8, 2021 10:16 am

Henrik Lundqvist announced on social media Friday that he is recovering from open-heart surgery. The procedure, which occurred on Wednesday, took five hours to complete and fixed Lundqvist’s aortic valve and aortic root.

“Surgery went really well,” Lundqvist wrote. “About 5 hours to get it all taken care of. Really appreciate the great staff here at the Clevland Clinic. Last few days has been pretty crazy but feel like I’m in really good hands. Every day is a step in the right direction.”

The Capitals goaltender also shared a photo his daughter Juli drew of him.

Lundqvist pulled out of the 2020-21 season in December after doctors noticed his heart’s deteroirating condition.

“For several weeks now, I’ve been undergoing several different tests related to a heart condition and after lots of discussions with doctors around the country and finally receiving the last results this week, I, unfortunately, won’t be unable to join the team this year and [will] continue the process to fix these issues,” Lundqvist said. “I can say for the past two months, I felt so inspired and committed to preparing myself for this season. The daily skates and workouts and just the thought of playing in DC really brought me lots of excitement. It’s still very hard for me to process all of this and kind of shocking to be honest. But with the experts involved, I know this is the only way of action.”

Capitals general manager Brian MacLellan added that Hank managed the issue his entire career, but a routine physical revealed how dangerous things had become.

“Obviously, we were all excited to add him to our team and he was excited to come,” MacLellan said. “It looked like a perfect fit for both sides. Everybody within the organization, his family, everybody was excited to see how it would play out. And then I think we started further exploring where he’s at physically, his risk level is not acceptable for him to continue to play. It’s unfortunate. It was emotional for him and his family. I think we’re grateful that he went down that road. Our medical staff, our trainer pushed him down that road and explored it more. I think the result is good. He’s very aware of where his health is at. I think everybody’s a little disappointed that we couldn’t see what we could have done with him in the lineup.”