Bret Michaels' Heart Surgery Successful
Poison frontman is recuperating in ICU after surgery to fix hole in his heart.
By Gil Kaufman
Bret Michaels
Photo: Michael N. Todaro/ Getty Images
Poison singer and reality-TV star Bret Michaels had successful surgery on Monday to repair a hole in his heart.
It was some good medical news after several years of health scares for the 47-year-old "Celebrity Apprentice" winner. According to The Associated Press, the surgery took place at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, and a hospital spokeswoman said Michaels is recuperating and remains in the facility's intensive care unit for observation.
Doctors discovered a hole in Michaels' heart in April after he was treated for a brain hemorrhage. During Monday's procedure, doctors inserted a catheter into a vein in Michaels' groin with a surgical device and then used tiny cameras to close the hole in his heart. The closure device will remain inside the rocker's heart permanently to stop abnormal blood flow between two chambers of his heart, which doctors think could have caused the stroke he suffered last year.
The impending surgery didn't slow Michaels down over the weekend, when he attended a classic car show in Phoenix and auctioned off his 1969 Camaro which had a cameo in his recent VH1 series, "Bret Mi! chaels: Life as I Know It" for more than $200,000, before checking into the hospital on Saturday night to prepare for the procedure.
"Barring any complications, I should be out within three or four days," he told the Arizona Republic newspaper on Friday. "Then, I will be down (resting) for three weeks. I don't know if I can sit around for that long, but I'll try my best."
Michaels, who also had an emergency appendectomy in April, recently proposed to his girlfriend of 16 years, Kristi Gibson, who is also the mother of his two children.
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