David Ginola leaves hospital almost two weeks after quadruple heart bypass operation
Ex-Premier League star thanks fans for support after collapsing during charity match in south of France
DAVID Ginola has returned home after a ten day spell in hospital to treat serious heart problems.
The former footie ace had to have a quadruple heart bypass after collapsing during a charity game in the south of France nearly two weeks ago.
Ginola today tweeted about his relief at being out of hospital and thanked well-wishers for their messages of support.
He wrote: “Home at last! Thanks so much to all of you for your incredible messages of love and affection! They do help my recovery.”
The ex-Premier League ace, 49, had to be revived on the pitch on 19 May by a bystander who used CPR.
Ginola tried to play down the seriousness of the incident later that day, tweeting: “Footy match in the midday sun, not very clever.
“Now having some tests done. Whoever voted for a World Cup in Qatar in the summer?”
But Dr Gilles Dreyfus, professor of cardiac surgery at the Monaco Heart Centre where the star was treated, made no bones about the fact he was lucky to be alive.
He said: “Fortunately there was one person who had been trained in CPR, because otherwise he would have been brain dead.
“They then called the emergency services, who arrived eight minutes later with him in cardiac arrest.”
The professor said Ginola was also treated by medics who arrived on the scene and had to shock him four times with a defibrillator “to restore a normal heart rhythm”.
He added: “I made the decision to transfer him to the operating theatre and he immediately underwent a quadruple heart bypass, which was very straightforward although difficult.”
But the footie legend, who was said to be recovering well in the immediate aftermath of the procedure, reportedly turned down the chance for a reunion with his alleged lovechild while he was in hospital.
Despite his brush with death, the star refused to see Joy Pinquier – who he denies is his daughter, despite having previously paid child support for – in “floods of tears”.
Ginola – who counts Spurs, Newcastle, Everton and Aston Villa among his former clubs in England – won 17 caps for the French national team during his playing career.
He was also named PFA players' player of the year and the Football Writers' Association's footballer of the year while playing for Tottenham.
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