Hollywood celebrity Zsa Zsa Gabor continued a string of health issues dating back to a fall out of her bed that broke a hip last July as she has again been rushed to hospital in L.A. for emergency treatment on a blood clot in her leg.
By Jan. 8 2011 there was a chance she could lose a partial leg to attempt to remove the clot. Her husband, Fredric Prince von Anhalt, told media on the 6th that he had signed the papers to permit the doctors to amputate the leg if they deem it necessary.
Elderly Gabor Has Leg Infection, on Antibiotics
Gabor, who turns 94 next month, is in the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center on a high dose of antibiotics, her publicist John Blanchette told reporters. Her leg has often become badly infected since her fall despite the efforts of doctors on at least three occasions.
"The doctors decided to do a massive treatment of powerful antibiotics before going ahead with the more serious procedure," Blanchette told media. "That's a very dangerous operation for a person her age. They say it's 50-50 whether (Gabor) would survive."
Gabor the Actor, Celebrity, Socialite
Gabor acted in movies and made a bit of a name for herself simply by calling people "dah-ling" in a thick Hungarian accent. She had two sisters, Magda and Eva, both of whom are now dead. Eva was a talented actor and was known for playing opposite Eddie Albert in the sitcom Green Acres.
She has been married to her current husband, her 9th, the self-titled von Anhalt, 65, for 24 years. He is alternating between her bedside and giving interviews to the media and he told interviewer Joy Behar on her show that he had become concerned about his wife's health before Christmas.
"But she was crying and begged me 'Please don't bring me to the hospital over the holidays,'" he told Behar. He said that on Sunday two doctors came to their home and told him that they could tell by the smell of his wife's bandage that she needed to immediately go to the hospital.
Prince Von Anhalt Has Own Medical Issues
Van Anhalt has had his own brushes with illness of late. In September he swallowed a bee which stung him on the inside of his throat on the way down and made breathing difficult; he had to be hospitalized. Before Christmas he accidentally glued an eye shut, mistakenly thinking a tube of glue was his eye drops; he required medical attention to get it unstuck.
Von Anhalt said he has not told Zsa Zsa of the possibility of a partial leg amputation. "I'm not going to tell my wife that she probably could lose her leg," he said. "She's going to get a heart attack."
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