Flavio Briatore's Heart Surgery: A Journey of Fear, Hope, and Recovery

The surprise of going to the hospital for a routine check-up and discovering a mass in the heart, the anguish at the thought of leaving a 14-year-old son alone, the determination in thinking that everything would be for the best. "I was scared and praying. I held on in the hospital thinking about my son Falco," confessed Flavio Briatore, convalescing after surgery to remove a benign tumor. The entrepreneur recounted those ten days at the San Raffaele in Milan in an interview with Corriere della Sera, but he doesn't even think about slowing down: "After these things happen, you start living your life as usual, in fact, now better than before because I have a new heart."

Flavio Briatore and the heart operation, how is he? The tumor discovered two weeks ago, Nathan's party, the surgery, and Gregoraci's closeness

The Diagnosis

The diagnosis came unexpectedly. During a routine check-up at the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan, Professor Zangrillo identified something worrying in Flavio Briatore's heart, leading to the decision for immediate surgery. It was March 14. "I had to take some drinks for the colonoscopy and gastroscopy, but Professor Zangrillo came and interrupted everything: 'We have to put you to sleep for a check, from the CT scan we saw something we don't like in the heart'. When I woke up, the analysis was clear: benign tumor, to be operated on immediately."

Nathan Falco

March 18 was the birthday of Nathan Falco, the son he had with Elisabetta Gregoraci, who turned 14 years old. Briatore returned home, just in time to celebrate with him and his ex-wife, and the day after he was operated on in Milan. The boy lived through his father's operation with apprehension: "The evening of the operation I was completely out of it, in intensive care, and he kept asking his mother to let him talk to me before going to bed." Only the next day, when he received a message from his dad, he was reassured: "He wanted to come to Milan right away, but I didn't want him to see me in that condition. So I asked him to wait and not to skip school. He came on Sunday. It was a very emotional moment, he was crying."

The Fear

Briatore also feared he might not make it: "In these cases, you're a bit fatalistic. Italian healthcare has centers of excellence at an international level, with the best surgeons in the world. When your life is in the hands of such prepared people, what happens is a bit your destiny. In an open-heart operation, you can't do anything, you have to be optimistic by force: it's the mind that helps you to heal."

The Support

After the operation, the presence and support of his dearest loved ones like his ex-wife Elisabetta Gregoraci, who never left him alone, and other close friends like Daniela Santanchè, represented a point of light in the recovery. Even his daughter Leni, had with Heidi Klum, contacted him, alerted by brother Nathan Falco.

The Prevention

The entrepreneur used his experience to raise an important discussion about health and the universal right to medical care, with an emphasis on prevention. "Rich people stuff", he was told. "It's true, we are privileged. We should all be able to have check-ups. There are things for which the center, right, and left should be united and one is the right to health."

The Healthcare in Italy

Another controversy raised by the surgery was Flavio Briatore's choice to have the operation in Italy, and not in Monte Carlo, where he lives, taking advantage - according to detractors - of the healthcare service of a country where he does not pay taxes. "First of all, I paid to be treated in Milan, I didn't do it for free. And I chose it because, having lived in America, London, France, the level of Italian hospitals remains the highest," the entrepreneur cut short. And on taxes, he emphasized that he pays them in all the countries where he has a business.