Who ever says ice skaters are wimps don’t know Olympic ice skating champ Scott Hamilton!
The 52-year-old skater underwent brain surgery last June at a Boston hospital to remove a tumor, but doctors accidentally nicked an artery causing an aneurysm to form several days later.
Talk about bad luck!
Fortunately for the championship skater, who previously overcame testicular cancer and a pituitary gland tumor, the aneurysm was successfully removed through a non-invasive procedure, but he suffered the loss of two-thirds of the vision in his right eye – a known risk of the surgery.
The normally optimistic skater says, after all his medical troubles in the past, he wasn’t sure if he’d make it through the crisis, saying:
“I tried to stay positive through all this, but in back of my mind, I felt, ‘I’m getting knocked down and I’m not sure if I can get back up.’ ”
However, with a little help from his country friends, Hamilton bounced back without ever losing his spirit or sense of humor.
When country star Brad Paisley and his actress wife, Kim Williams-Paisley, cut short their European vacation to Scott’s bedside, the known prankster greeted the couple with a bandage around his head soaked in ketchup.
Paisley, full of admiration for his friend, said:
“He’s a hero to me in the way he handles adversity and his positive outlook on life, no matter the circumstances.”
He sure is! After such an ordeal he’s even already giving back to the world and recently raised $1.1 million for cancer research at his annual Scott Hamilton CARES Initiative fundraiser on Nov. 6!
We wish Scott Hamilton, now back on his feet with his family at his home in Franklin, Tennessee, the best of luck for the future!
[Image via Nikki Nelson/WENN.]
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