Watch CBS News

Zsa Zsa Gabor Hospitalized To Have Leg Amputated

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Zsa Zsa Gabor was hospitalized Sunday to undergo surgery to have part of her right leg amputated because gangrene was setting in, a representative said.

Doctors examined a lesion on Gabor's leg that had gone from just over an inch to about a foot and was growing gangrenous, publicist John Blanchette said.

 

"They're going to have to amputate part of her leg," Blanchette said. "They said if they didn't, she could lose her life."

He said the amputation would be just below the knee.

She was taken to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center for surgery, and husband Prince Frederic von Anhalt was with her, Blanchette said.

There was no immediate word on when the surgery would occur.

The 93-year-old former actress broke her hip and had replacement surgery in July, and has been hospitalized several times since for swelling in her legs and blood clots throughout her body. She was in critical condition and asked for a priest to read her last rites during a hospital visit in August, but recovered and returned home.

Gabor has used a wheelchair since she was partially paralyzed in a 2002 car accident, and had a stroke in 2005.

A Hungarian-born sex symbol of the 1950s and 1960s, Gabor had a brief and unremarkable film career, appearing in films ranging from "Moulin Rouge" in 1952 to "Queen of Outer Space" in 1958, and had no regular television role like her sister Eva had on "Green Acres."

Her primary role was herself -- appearing on TV specials and game shows, as a guest on several television series, and in real-life dramas like her slapping of a Beverly Hills policeman in 1989 that led to a brief jail term.

(© Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.