PARIS - French billiard player Richard Bitalis, 76 years old, is back home from a perilous medical adventure. In his appartment in Paris, he is slowly recovering from a surgery at the Monsouri Hospital in Paris on 20 December 2021. There, Bitalis received a new biological heart valve according to a new method: a heart valve made of bovine tissue. Due to a sudden complication shortly after the operation on the ureters, Bitalis fell into a two-day coma and had to stay in hospital for seven weeks. ''I'm home again now, recovering slowly, but it's still a long way to go,'' he told us from his appartment in a severely weakened voice.
Kozoom spoke with the billiard player who celebrated his main successes in the era when Raymond Ceulemans and Ludo Dielis ruled the international billiard front.
Richard Bitalis (10-1-1946), nicknamed Bitalo, finished second in his career at the 1983 World Championship in Aix les Bains where Raymund Ceulemans became champion and Nobuaki Kobayashi third after Bitalis.
He finished second at the European Championship in Viersen, 1989 following the winner Lennart Blomdahl and ahead of Torbjörn Blomdahl.
Furthermore, he was often on the international stages and achieved successes with teams in the Netherlands and France.
Kozoom/Frits Bakker: How are you doing now, Richard, you are back home after a tough stay in hospital after a gruelling battle to regain health.
Richard Bitalis: I've been home in Paris for a week now where my wife Katy is very well taking care of me. She helps me to move and takes me where I want to go. I can finally walk a little again and I go to the rehabilitation centre three times a week to do exercises. Well, luckily, I feel no pain, but I am very weak. Before my operation, I weighed 92 kilos. I lost 14 kilos and fortunately, I am eating better now. This afternoon, I will carefully go back to the billiard club of Courbevoie, where I train Magalie Declunder. I hope to be able to play billiards again in two or three months. The season is over. I want to return to my teams next year. For me, it would be a catastrophe if I had to stop. I have been playing every day since I was ten years old, which is about 65 years now. I can't live without it.
Kozoom/FB: What happened in those first weeks of December: how did you feel that something was wrong with your heart, what happened afterwards during the operation?
Richard Bitalis: I had troubles with breathing and went to the doctor at some point. After examinations, it turned out that my heart valve was broken. I had to go straight to the hospital for an operation. They decided to use the new method. I got the valve of a calf, a totally new development, which gives a lot of perspective for later years. The operation was performed by a Greek surgeon. My breast was not opened from the front, but two holes were made on the right side of my body through which they operated on me. It took about five hours and everything seemed to have gone well.
Kozoom/FB: Afterwards, right after the operation, it turned out that there were complications and that it went very badly.
Richard Bitalis: With the probe that was inserted into my penis to be able to urinate, things went wrong. There were sudden complications after the operation. I was in severe pain, a urologist was called in and finally I fell into a coma because a lot of blood and urine had entered my body.
Kozoom/FB: What do you know about the days and weeks afterwards? How did they manage to fix you up?
Richard Bitalis: I came out of the coma after two days, but had to stay in bed for another six weeks. I heard later that it was a near-death experience. A young French doctor, Dr Lemoine, saved my life with reanimation. Without him, they told me later, I would no longer be here. Seven weeks after the operation, I could finally get out of bed. I had fourteen blood transfusions to gain strength and clean up everything. And finally, I was allowed to go home.
Kozoom/FB: In the meantime, you are already going to the billiard club to meet friends and you are even thinking about playing again.
Richard Bitalis: I should be 90 per cent recovered in two or three months. Then I can start playing again, fortunately. I could not live without billiards. At Courbevoie, my club, where I play with Eddy Merckx and Cédric Melnytschenko, among others, and train with Magalie Declunder, I will certainly be seen more and more soon. And I'll definitely be playing in the competition again in the Netherlands and Belgium.
Kozoom/FB: Did you receive many reactions from friends and the billiard world?
Richard Bitalis: A lot, I'm very happy about that. Reactions from Ludo Dielis, Tonny Carlsen, Dion Nelin, Martin Spoormans and a lot of other teammates. The federation didn't react, but I'm not very popular in French billiards because of my big mouth. I want to tell all my friends and billiard players that I will be back soon. And thank you for all the nice reactions.
Richard Bitalis, one hour after his heart surgery (picture Katy)