Lifestyle Health Celebrity Health Bret Michaels Undergoes Heart Surgery The newly engaged rocker has a successful procedure to close a hole in his heart By Tim Nudd Tim Nudd Tim Nudd is a former contributing writer at PEOPLE. He left PEOPLE in 2016. People Editorial Guidelines Published on January 25, 2011 07:30AM EST Photo: AP Photo/Dan Steinberg Bret Michaels had surgery on Monday to repair a hole in his heart – an operation that had been planned for some time and went well. “Bret Michaels underwent a successful heart procedure today at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix,” the hospital said in a statement. “Michaels is currently recuperating at St. Joseph’s where he remains for observation in ICU.” The hole in his heart was discovered last May, after Michaels, 47, suffered a mini-stroke. Bret Michaels: Being Engaged Feels Awesome That followed a series of scary health problems earlier last spring, beginning with an emergency appendectomy in April, followed soon after by a life-threatening brain hemorrhage. Michaels, who got engaged to his longtime love Kristi Gibson in December, told PEOPLE last month that he was optimistic about the heart surgery. “I gotta tell ya, I’m very positive,” he said. “I feel positive they’re going to do an amazing job. They’ve done thousands of these operations.”