Steroids, she declared, have nothing to do with this. But Pumping Iron director George Butler, who shot 6,000 still pictures of bodybuilder Arnold in various poses before he started work on either the book or the movie, and who has maintained a relationship with Schwarzenegger for more than 20 years, says, During the operation, doctors removed his heart from his body and replaced one of the heart valves with a pig valve. During his recovery, he was rushed back to the operating room, where the doctors again removed his heart and implanted two more pig valves. A patient undergoing valve-replacement surgery has several options. An aortic valve can be replaced by the patient s own pulmonic valve, after which a valve taken from a pig replaces the pulmonic valve.
Mechanical valves are also an option.
The kind of medication required to maintain a mechanical valve, Girardi says, doesn t jibe well with an athletic lifestyle. A pig valve, in general, will last an average of 12 years or so. I have seen them last as long as 20 years. She says she has spoken to two doctors who were in the operating room during Schwarzenegger s procedures, and the account she heard squares with Butler s. At the same time, they are all related to androgens in one way or another.