Today as then, with Elisabetta Gregoraci and his closest friends at his side. The same fear, with an extra thought, this time, however Nathan Falco, the son who turned 14 on March 18, when his father already knew. Flavio Briatore underwent heart surgery for a benign tumor. He himself wanted to announce it on social media yesterday, after returning to Monte Carlo, already operational, ready to look to the future. But with an awareness to share: «Medical prevention is fundamental! Following a routine check-up, I underwent heart surgery as I had a benign mass which was removed minimally invasively, using an endoscopic technique. We check every year. I did it two years ago, this benign tumor wasn’t there and this year it was. So we must not neglect ourselves, prevention is fundamental.”
Briatore’s other tumor
Also in 2006 the entrepreneur from Verzuolo, who he will turn 74 on April 12th, had discovered a tumor during a routine check-up. Then he was malignant, in one kidney. To Maria Latella on TO he said: “We feel immortal, but instead we should thank God every morning just because we shaveTO”. Elisabetta Gregoraci was at his side, at the time she was his girlfriend. Then they got married, had a child, broke up. But she was there again, on the morning of the 19th, crossing the threshold of San Raffaele with him to entrust herself toéteam of Professor Francesco Maisano, who operated on him in the afternoon, and to the cardiac surgical intensive care team, managed by Professor Alberto Zangrillo.
– Flavio Briatore with Elisabetta Gregoraci at San Raffaele
Elisabetta Gregoraci
“In everyday life we always pay attention to a lot of things, but the real summary is that there is nothing more precious than health”, wrote Elisabetta Gregoraci in an Instagram story. «In these last ten days I have been next to Flavio to support him and try to give him all the strength necessary to best face this delicate and unexpected operation and post-operative recovery. In my heart I always knew that everything would be fine, but the strong good and sense of family that will bind us forever didn’t make me move from here. They were intense and difficult days, but they overcame them together. Let’s take this moment to remind ourselves how futile everything is when it comes to health. He’s going home.”
Control and discovery
Briatore discovered the disease two weeks ago. A cold shower for a man full of plans (on March 16, despite everything, he had challenged Gino Sorbillo with carbohydrate shots, in view of the opening of his Crazy Pizza restaurant in Naples). From there it went back to Monaco to spend the weekend with the family and celebrate Nathan Falco’s birthday, the 18th. The same evening he returned to Milan and the next morning he showed up at the hospital, from which he was discharged on Wednesday. He also had to spend a day in intensive care: a routine procedure for an operation that is actually carried out in extracorporeal circulation, therefore with the patient attached to a machine to keep the heart and lungs at rest. Then the hospital stay on the first floor in Pavilion Q, the same one where Silvio Berlusconi spent his last days.
Thanks
In the video on Instagram, where he appeared thinner but serene, Briatore wanted to first of all thank the doctors and their collaborators, who he defined as ‘brilliant’ and ‘very good’. And then the affections, the real ones. “Elisabetta Gregoraci, who has always been with me. My son, who came from Munich to visit me in the hospital. I had everyone close to me, so many friends. But the most important thing guys: let’s do prevention. I’ll tell you, I’ve been there and now here I am, we’ll start again tomorrow.” The benign tumor that affected him is very rare. At San Raffaele in the last 17 years they have only counted two cases (these neoplasms represent 0.02% of all human tumors). When he learned the diagnosis, however, he didn’t hesitate: let’s do the surgery immediately. He wasn’t alone. His family and those who love him were with him.
