"Typical man" How Karina Gottschalk took her husband for a life-saving check-up
It was lucky that the cancer was detected so early, says Thomas Gottschalk's wife. She was the one who urged him to go to the doctor - and possibly saved his life.
02.12.2025, 09:08
dpa
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- Thomas Gottschalk's wife Karina recognized changes in his health and persuaded him to see a doctor despite his initial refusal.
- Doctors diagnosed a rare, aggressive blood vessel tumor that required immediate surgery; two operations followed at short intervals.
- According to Karina, the cancer was detected early, which may have saved Gottschalk's life; an MRI check-up is scheduled in two months.
According to his wife Karina, presenter Thomas Gottschalk, who had cancer, did not want to go to the doctor at first. At the beginning of July this year, she suspected that something was wrong with her husband, she told the Bild newspaper: "Thomas became noticeably quieter and paler and had to go to the toilet more often. I didn't know him like that."
He was also no longer able to move so much, Karina Gottschalk told the newspaper. She then got him an appointment at the Rechts der Isar Hospital in Munich. "Because, typical man, he naturally didn't want to go to the doctor," she said. Various examinations were carried out and the doctor then said that her husband had to be operated on immediately. The operation took seven hours, followed by a second one four days later.
"We continue to tremble, of course"
Following discussions about his recent stage appearances, 75-year-old Thomas Gottschalk has made his cancer public in an interview with the "Bild" newspaper. It is a very rare, malignant, fast-growing tumor that develops from the cells lining the blood vessels.
It is a so-called epithelioid angiosarcoma - a rare, malignant tumor of the blood vessels. "Thomas was operated on immediately. They had to remove part of the ureter as well as the bladder," says his wife.
The complicated cancer operation was followed by another shock. New findings from the pathology department revealed that Gottschalk would have to be operated on a second time. "There was much more tissue affected by the cancer than suspected," said the 62-year-old.
"Thank God Thomas' cancer was detected so early," said Karina Gottschalk. Perhaps her husband would not be alive today otherwise. "In any case, he wouldn't have got off so lightly." In two months' time, her husband will have to undergo an MRI scan. "We're still trembling, of course," she said, "but we hope and remain positive."
