TV presenter: “Pech” at her brain surgery: Lierhaus regrets the doctor at the time

The television presenter Monica Lierhaus (55) does not blame anyone for the complications in her brain surgery. On the contrary: she regretted the then operating doctor. “Nobody did anything wrong with my operation. It was just bad luck,” said Lierhaus of the “Bild” newspaper.

The professor, who operated her on January 8, 2009 in a Hamburg clinic because of a life-threatening brain aneurysm, is still sorry for her. “It was his very last operation before retirement, and then everything goes wrong. The poor man.”

At that time, Lierhaus was one of the most famous moderators on German television. As a sports reporter and presenter, she reported on the most important events in German sport for the ARD, was one of the faces of the “Sportschau” and also moderated television shows.

“I was sure it would go well”

Then the aneurysm was discovered during a routine examination. It should be removed with an operation. “I was sure it would be fine and at the end of January I would be back in front of the camera at the start of the Bundesliga season,” said Lierhaus of the newspaper. But there were complications at the operation.

After that, the moderator was in a coma for months – after that the doctors told her that she could never run again. But Lierhaus fought his way back. In recent years she has worked for the Pay TV station Sky. She has been in the “RTL” sports team since 2023.

“A birth would certainly have killed me”

She probably had the aneurysm from birth, that the doctors had told her at the time, Lierhaus said the “Bild”. She now looks at her unfulfilled desire to have children positively.

“I wanted to drive my career ahead. When I decided to get children, it didn’t work,” she said. “In retrospect, that was good. A birth would certainly have killed me. The pressure in the head with the contractions would have been guaranteed to burst.”