Lewis Hamilton responded warmly and sincerely to the news shared by Heikki Kovalainen, his former teammate at McLaren. The Finnish racer recently underwent a very difficult open-heart surgery, but the recovery period has now begun.
“Get well soon, Heikki! I’m praying for you,” the seven-time world champion wrote on Kovalainen’s social media page, reacting to a story about a cardiac surgery that was successfully performed last week in Finland at the Tampere University Hospital.
In the fall of 2023, during a routine examination, Heikki’s aortic enlargement was detected, but now the most risky part of the health restoration program is over.
“I had a wonderful team of doctors and nurses, and since it was open heart surgery, the marks will last a lifetime,” Kovalainen said. “But the operation was successful, everything we planned was done – part of the aorta was removed and replaced with a prosthesis. Of course, this is a very serious operation, and for a couple of days after it I did not feel well, but now I am much better, and I have already returned home, where I will recover.
The prognosis is quite good, there is a chance for a full recovery, but, of course, only with time will it become clear how everything will go. But so far everything is not bad, and this makes me very happy. For now, I will continue to gradually get back into shape and hope that I will be able to gradually increase my physical activity…”
Last fall, Kovalainen defended the Japanese rally champion title in the JN-1 class, and also competed in the Finnish championship, and he had very extensive plans for 2024, which now had to be postponed for a long time.
2024-04-08 13:35:00
#Hamilton #wishes #Kovalainen #speedy #recovery
