Elizabeth Taylor Assures Fans She’s Fine

In the ongoing Elizabethan drama that is Elizabeth Taylor’s life, the movie star has survived another hospital visit – this time to repair a leaky heart valve – and is assuring her public all is well.
On her Dame Elizabeth Twitter page, the AIDS activist, perfume mogul and Butterfield 8 and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Best Actress Oscar winner, 77, tells fans, “Dear Friends, My heart procedure went off perfectly. It’s like having a brand new ticker. Thank you for your prayers and good wishes … I know they all helped. Love you, Elizabeth.”

Taylor underwent a laparoscopic operation, which is considered experimental. “It’s called MitraClip,” Dr. Edward Verrier, professor of cardiovascular surgery at the University of Washington in Seattle, told ABC News. “It’s an unproven but new technology that’s being introduced as a potential [and less-invasive] alternative to open-heart surgery.”
The screen icon has a long history of medical problems that have involved, according to various biographers, between 30 and 40 surgeries, dating back to a back injury sustained when she was 12 and shooting 1944’s National Velvet. She also nearly died in 1960 when just starting production on Cleopatra, suffering a case of pneumonia so severe she had to undergo an emergency tracheotomy.
Then, as now, she persevered.