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Henrik Lundqvist to undergo open heart surgery |
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Less than two weeks after dropping the bombshell that he would miss the 2020-21 season due to a heart related issue, Henrik Lundqvist provided an even bigger bombshell as to what his next step will be.
On December 17, Lundqvist announced he would miss the season:
Today's news is even more sobering and scarier:
Open heart surgery, aortic valve replacement, aortic root and ascending aortic replacement, as he clarified, is what Lundqvist will undergo, though he did not provide a date for the surgery. The operation is viewed as "somewhat routine," though as they say, minor surgery is an operation done on some else. The prognosis for a full recovery is good, however, the future for his playing career is less certain.
All I can say, as does all of hockey as well, is godspeed Hank. Praying for a fully successful surgery and complete and speedy recovery. I think we would all like nothing better than to see Lundqvist play again, but more importantly, to live a long life with no complications.
What is also scary is finding out - if not known already - why this was never previously diagnosed. Brian MacLellan, the Capitals' GM, in his comments after Lundqvist's initial announcement, kind of threw the Rangers medical staff under the bus.
"“He’s had a heart issue all along that he’s managed, and it’s been fine,” MacLellan said. “We anticipated that he would be the same as what it’s been for all of his career. I think a routine physical that was an early physical turned into ‘we need to explore further what’s going on.'”
It's feasible the situation changed in the past few months, since the season ended or since his last exam, which might have been at the beginning of last season, especially since this was a condition he was previously managing. Regardless if that is the case, medical protocols and practices within the organization should be reviewed just to be safe. Unfortunately, we saw what happened to Alexei Cherepanov, and would never want to have that happen again. As such, in order to be cautious, the team hopefully will review the prior exams compared to Lundqvist's recent tests, presuming with HIPAA that information would be shared either by the team or by Lundqvist - to see what - if anything changed and make the necessary modifications. In addition, this may result in players receiving their own second opinions, if they were not already doing so.
Once again, praying for a successful surgery and full recovery for Lundqvist.
New York Rangers Blogger • 
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