Svend Viking Karlsen in surgery

[Ann Kristin Berli-Johnsen]

Cut and paste from Ironmind.com;



If you talked to Svend “Viking” Karlsen today, you would think the World’s Strongest Man winner was set to go on holiday tomorrow or maybe it would just be another day in the office - in fact, tomorrow morning Karlsen undergoes kidney transplant surgery.


Svend Karlsen gets a new kidney tomorrow - maybe play your favorite Elvis song today, to show your support for the Viking. Image courtesy of Svend Karlsen/Viking Power Productions.


Saying that it’s a four-hour procedure, Karlsen sounded remarkably upbeat: “I am looking forward to it,” he told IronMind, explaining that the burden of living on dialysis is great.

“The chances of this failing are only 1 in 3,000,” said Karlsen. “So the odds are on my side.” Following surgery, Karlsen said he should be up, at least a little, in a day; and following one week in the hospital, he moves to nearby hotel where he will be monitored for a couple more weeks. In six to eight weeks, he should be able to resume training, Karlsen told IronMind.

Explaining that dialysis takes six hours, three times a week, and is anything but pleasant, Karlsen said that, “It should be added to the UN list of tortures.”

I visited Svend and his donor yesterday, and they were both happy and competed in having the best results from all the test taken of them for the last three days. Once a strongman - always a strongman! ;)

Right now they're both in surgery and they have been it for three hours. I'll see them later today ....

[Mike Landrich]

Good luck Svend. My thoughts and prayers are with you. Viking Power!!!

[Derek Girven]

wow i didnt even know he was sick, i hope svend does ok he is a classic strongman and entertaining while doing it. one of the greatest

[Karl Gillingham]

Good Luck Svend, Egil, and entire Karlsen family!

[Aaron West]

Speedy recovery!

[RyanJohnston]

Svend, I wish you a fast recovery and I hope your health stays strong. You are my favourite strongman competitor and have always been a source of inspiration.

[Daniel Atchison]

Continue training? What does that mean, I thought he had basically gotten out of any type of training regiment? Anyone want to clarify this?



I also wish the Viking a speedy recovery.

[Scott Markowitz]

He's done competing...doesn't mean he has to get weak.

[Daniel Atchison]

He's done competing...doesn't mean he has to get weak.

" You dont have to be fat to be strong!"

[Jeff Flynn]

Good luck Viking, show that kidney who's boss!

[Darin Heltemes]

I'd like to send my thoughts and wishes for a speedy recovery for Svend, his family and his donor - that is a great thing that person is doing. Viking! :EP:

[Brad Ardrey]

Good luck with the surgery Svend - My prayers are with you and your family. You are one of the greatest Strongmen ever!!!!

Ann Kristin - thank you for the post - keep us posted please.

[Knelly]

Derek and I send our prayers over to Svend, Lene and Alexander. Lene is a huge support and takes good care of her family. I know Svend will be much better off after the surgery and won't be in so much pain and getting sick all the time. They are great people and only deserve the best! Hugs and kisses your way! xoxo

[Brandon Smith]

My prayers and best wishes are with Svend and his family. Hoping everything goes well and there's a speedy recovery!

[Ryan Carey]

Hope you have a good and speedy recovery Viking!

[Mike Beyers]

Best wishes to Svend, his family, and his donor for a speedy, and thorough recovery!

[Barney Shannon]

My thoughts and prayers are with you today Svend.

[Anthony Esquerdo]

Svend is one of my hero's. I just hope they gave him a strong viking kidney.Hope he has a VIKING POWER recovery asap.

[MalachiMcMullen]

My hopes are with you, your family and the donor and theirs Svend! Good luck and I hope everything turns out ok!

[Ryan Rhodes]

He'll be choking down lutefisk and akvavit in no time ;) Viking kidney power!

Lykke til!

[Garrick Daft]

Best Wishes Svend!! Hope everything goes great!

[Ann Kristin Berli-Johnsen]

This has been an extremly long, tough day, and I'm tired. You see; the donor is my husband, Egil, so this is more to me than "just a kidney transplant".

Anyway; I'm so glad I can tell you all that it - so far -seems like everything is going exactly the way we all hope it shall go! The transplant went well. Egil donated his left kidney, a good, healthy, STRONG viking kidney, and just an hour after the surgery the kidney had produced 1,5 l urin! That's amazing!

Both Svend and Egil are fine ... when Svend saw me he smiled BIG and shouted that he wanted cream cake ...:mag: When they both where back on the "bed post" (sometimes my english isn't good enough ... I'm sorry for that) they where parked beside eachother and they hugged. Do I need to say that I cried a bit then?

I'm going to visit them tomorrow - with a big cake with LOTS of cream ... and I can't wait to see them both!

I'll give you more later.

Good night from Norway.

[Jay Hagadorn]

My family and I will be praying for Svend, his family, Egil and your family..and some rest for Ann. God bless you all...

[Ryan Rhodes]

Svend got a kidney from a Norse strongman named Eagle. That has to be the most awesome transplanted organ ever. I bet it had horns and a beard and they needed a broadsword to get it out.

[Brian Carley]

Best wishes for a speedy recovery!!! Thoughts and prayers are with you, Svend!

[Matt Schumann]

Really happy to hear that it went well. I was really fortunate to meet Svend last year briefly and he was genuinly the nicest person I have met so far in the sport... I was fortunate to get a chance to tell him that I hoped that he would be feeling better, and im glad that he's finally close to getting better.

[RubenScheepers]

This has been an extremly long, tough day, and I'm tired. You see; the donor is my husband, Egil, so this is more to me than "just a kidney transplant".

Anyway; I'm so glad I can tell you all that it - so far -seems like everything is going exactly the way we all hope it shall go! The transplant went well. Egil donated his left kidney, a good, healthy, STRONG viking kidney, and just an hour after the surgery the kidney had produced 1,5 l urin! That's amazing!

Both Svend and Egil are fine ... when Svend saw me he smiled BIG and shouted that he wanted cream cake ...:mag: When they both where back on the "bed post" (sometimes my english isn't good enough ... I'm sorry for that) they where parked beside eachother and they hugged. Do I need to say that I cried a bit then?

I'm going to visit them tomorrow - with a big cake with LOTS of cream ... and I can't wait to see them both!

I'll give you more later.

Good night from Norway.

Unbelievable! happy to hear that there are some good people left on this earth. To donate a kidney isn´t something you decide over one night sleep. I´m glad everything went well! Keep us updated!

[Lars Gustafsson]

Have a speedy recovery Svend and Egil. Good luck from Sweden!:YR:

[Ann Kristin Berli-Johnsen]

I'm so glad to could tell you that Svend is doing amazingly fine! The new kidney is working just as it supposed to do. The first six hours after the surgery the kidney produced 12 liters of urin! That is so amazing ... so absolutly unbelievable incredebly! He's up walking, and the doctors and nurses tells us that he's looking better for each hour going by.

Egil is very sore in his stomach, and he's sore in his throat after the tube. As long as he's as sore as he is, he can't eat as much and whatever he like, so he's hungry and angry ... *lol*

I'm going in to Oslo see them in a moment.

Thank you all for all the warm thoughts! I'll bring them on to both Svend and Egil.

[JimPierce]

I'm very happy to hear everything went well
Svend has been one of my favorite SM after meeting him a few years ago at TPS
best wishes and hoping for a speedy recovery

[Vincent Dizenzo]

Great news! Heal up soon.

[corey.clark]

glad to hear surgery went well, best wishes for a speedy recovery for Svend and Egil

[Bob Toth]

Awesome news.. and best wishes to both Svend and Egil.
May their recovery be fast and have them up and walking in no time.

[strongwoman]

Thank you for keeping us updated with the guys!

Hugs to you and Egil!

Hanne and Ian

[Mike Westerling]

I pray you have a speedy recovery!
-Mike

[Timothy Chen]

Best Wishes and Heal up soon!

[Derek Williams]

My thoughts and prayers are with Svend and Egil for both to have a very speedy recovery and to be 100% healthy after all is done.

[Eric Johnson]

Great to hear they both came through fine and the kidney is producing urine!!!

When Sven first posted about his kidney failure I pledged to go an a lutifisk hunger strike until he was healed. Just to be sure he continues to do well, I am going to continue the lutifisk :disgust: hunger strike!

[JustinLallemand]

That's great news! I hope both men are doing well!

I'm sure they are probably about the best physical specimens (sp?) the doctors have seen. I don't know much about kidneys, but that sounds like a remarkable recovery.

This has been an extremly long, tough day, and I'm tired. You see; the donor is my husband, Egil, so this is more to me than "just a kidney transplant".

Anyway; I'm so glad I can tell you all that it - so far -seems like everything is going exactly the way we all hope it shall go! The transplant went well. Egil donated his left kidney, a good, healthy, STRONG viking kidney, and just an hour after the surgery the kidney had produced 1,5 l urin! That's amazing!

Both Svend and Egil are fine ... when Svend saw me he smiled BIG and shouted that he wanted cream cake ...:mag: When they both where back on the "bed post" (sometimes my english isn't good enough ... I'm sorry for that) they where parked beside eachother and they hugged. Do I need to say that I cried a bit then?

I'm going to visit them tomorrow - with a big cake with LOTS of cream ... and I can't wait to see them both!

I'll give you more later.

Good night from Norway.

[Jason Thurston]

Svend is one of my favorite strongman ever! You guys are in my thoughts and prayers.

[Paul E Ohl]

It was written circa1230 AD by the famous poet Snorri Sturluson and it hails the Viking bravery and resilience.
Here is to you Svend:

Egi once said to King Eirik:

The scream of the swords
The clash of shields
These are true words
On battlefields:
Man sees his death
Frozen in dreams,
But Eirik's breath
Frees battle-streams...

( Egil's Saga )[I]

There is only one of the kind : King Svend. To you, my friend.

[Egil Berli-Johnsen]

Me and the viking are lucky... or HE is actually.
I hav BT 0+ and are therefore universal donor. Tissuesamples from both of us match better than fore some brothers. :)

I had hell yesterday, with collapsed intestines and a lot of pain. But it also hurt the viking to see me suffer, so it kinda added up! :)

Thanks for all the good thoughts ! I know svend har read them!

[Tony Moses]

I just wanted to extend my well wishes to both guys and their families.

[svend karlsen]

To all !

From the bottom of my hart thanks you all for the kind words. But most of all…thanks to my now new brother Egil; You will always be a part of me:YR:

[Ann Kristin Berli-Johnsen]

................

[Ann Kristin Berli-Johnsen]

Egil is back home, so I think it's time for another little update.

Egil is in rather good shape. His stomach is - of course - rather sore. He's using less pain killers for each day passing by, and he's looking better for each hour passing by. :) He’s so glad he did what he has done!

Svend is still at the hospital, and will be there out this week. The doctors are very pleased with all the tests taken of him, and so far it looks like his body is accepting the new kidney.
He's on a strict medicine regime for the next three months, with medicines that are going to help his body accept the kidney. Because of this he has to go back to the hospital three times a week for control and new blood tests, etc.

He's not allowed to touch alcohol these months, and he has to be very careful with what he eat and drink. As little sugar as possible ...

Svend looks like a new man! I’m just amazed how big change it has been! Unfortunately I don’t have pics taken of him after the surgery, so you just have to believe me. It’s amazing! He’s peeing several liters per day, and you can imagine what difference many liters of water does for the body. He looks healthier, younger and more energetic.

Both guys are not allowed to start training until May. That’s for avoiding hernia. And since we really don’t want more surgeries now they’re going to obey the doctor’s orders.

That’s the news from Norway for today.

;)

[JimPierce]

That is great news they are both doing good
thanks for the update

[Daniel Evans]

Great news, hope you're back to full speed soon!

[Knelly]

Thank you so much for the update. I am so glad both of them are doing well! :marv:

[Declan Mac Daid]

Thats great news, thanks, just left him a message on his facebook.

[Brendan Merchant]

Glad to hear you are both recovering well.

That's quite a sacrifice Egil and speaks volumes about you.