Zsa Zsa Gabor had her leg amputated

The doctors failed to save her leg. Victim of multiple complications from her hip surgery last summer, the actress had cancerous lesions that were part of the thumb, which rose gradually to the foot and above. The infection in her right leg was turning into necrosis, her rep explained.

Doctors hoped they would be able to avoid amputation. Doctors at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center did everything to avoid this last resort, putting her on antibiotics. But they weren’t enough.

“She seemed to tolerate it well, although she’s in a somewhat frail condition,” Dr. David Rigberg said.

The former Hungarian sex symbol will certainly need plenty of rest and support to overcome such an intervention. She will remain hospitalized until at least early February, and her family hopes she will return home for her 94th birthday on the 6th.

But doctors remain cautious on the question. “We’re guarded in our opinion on how she’s going to do overall,” Rigberg said.”She didn’t come in from home in very good health, so it’s difficult for me to predict how long she’s going to be here.”

Her husband confided that he hadn’t told his wife that she was in care for an amputation. The amputation had been recommended before the holidays, but she opposed it. And he feared she would still refuse surgery.

“Eventually, she will feel it, and then she will ask me and at that moment I don’t even want to think about it,” he said.