Complications at OP
“The poor man”: Ex-Sportschau presenter regrets doctor
31.08.2025 – 12:28 p.m.Reading time: 2 min.
Nobody did anything wrong with her operation, says Monica Lierhaus. And explains why your unfulfilled desire to have children is good afterwards.
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 best-known TV faces in German sport. For the ARD, she reported as a reporter and moderator about large events, was part of the “Sportschau” and led through various television programs.
Before the procedure, she was optimistic, she told the newspaper. The aneurysm was discovered during a routine examination, the operation should remove it. “I was sure it would go well and at the end of January I would be back in front of the camera when I started the Bundesliga season.” But it turned out differently: complications occurred during the operation, Lierhaus fell into a coma – and was there for several months. Then the doctors informed her that she could never run again.
The moderator did not give up. She fought back into life step by step, later worked on the Pay TV station Sky. She has been part of the “RTL Aktuell” sports team since 2023. In the interview, Lierhaus now spoke about another aspect of her life. The doctors had told her that the aneurysm was probably innate. So today she sees her unfulfilled desire to have children in a new light.
“I wanted to drive my career ahead. When I decided to get children, it didn’t work,” said Lierhaus. “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.”