In mid-December, the news came that Henrik Lundqvist was forced to pause his hockey career due to a heart defect.
In an emotional interview with the NHL Network, he now talks about the tough times.
- I got a call from one of the specialists who was involved in the work and he just says "I'm sorry but your test results were worse than expected" at that moment I realized that it was not a question of whether I should or should not, he says and continues:
- The next step was to call a surgeon directly.
Two weeks later, I'm lying on a bed in Cleveland on my way to heart surgery.
On January 8, he said that the operation was still completed and that everything went well.
- Everything went so fast, I did not have much time to think.
I was very calm.
I think it really helped that I am an athlete and used to focusing.
"Should they open my chest?"
- I remember lying outside the operating room and starting to think “is this really happening.
I'm going into that room and they'll open my chest and a machine will keep me alive ”.
It was really heavy stuff to take in.
I would like to have control over everything but in that moment it was best to just let go of all control.
The text is updated.