[TorqueDog]

A final year med student on Reddit went through the ELI5 of Hank's heart condition in /r/hockey: What happened to The King? My explanation of Lundqvist's heart condition.

Spoiler!

Unfortunately, I can guarantee that Hank will never play competitive hockey again. Depending on what valve they choose to put in Hank, he will likely need to be on blood thinners for the rest of his life to prevent blood clots from forming on the synthetic material that makes up the replacement valve. He will also likely need close to a year to recover from the surgery, and I would be absolutely shocked if any surgeon/cardiologist endorsed him playing serious sports after this. More importantly, I am hopeful that Hank will be able to live a healthy life going forward from this. He will need to be closely followed for the rest of his life and there is unfortunately a good chance that he will need another cardiac surgery in the future (these replacement grafts/valves don't last forever and Hank is a young guy), but hopefully not for a long time. Cardiac surgery and the pre/post op care has improved a lot and is always improving, and the materials they use to make replacement aortas/valves are also improving, so I hope Hank will benefit from these trends.