Elizabeth Taylor in Intensive Care Unit
A seriously ill Elizabeth Taylor battled pneumonia at her hospital, her breathing assisted by a ventilator, doctors say. Hospital officials described her condition late Monday as stabilizing after a lung biopsy to determine the cause of the pneumonia. Analysis of the tissue sample was expected to take until Thursday, said her spokeswoman, Chen Sam. The 58-year-old actress, who won best-actress Oscars for ``Butterfield 8'' and ``Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf,'' has been hospitalized more than two weeks. She was in the intensive care unit at St. John's Hospital and Health Center. ``She is seriously ill,'' her doctors said in a statement. ``After surgery, her breathing is now being assisted by a ventilator. Her condition is presently stabilizing and her physicians are pleased with her progress.'' Another spokewoman for the actress, Lisa Del Favaro, said Miss Taylor's family was at her bedside. She did not identify the family members. Miss Taylor entered Daniel Freeman Marina Hospital on April 9 with a persistent fever and sinus infection, doctors said. Her condition worsened and she was transferred April 16 to St. John's and moved into intensive care on Friday. ``It is serious, but they are really pleased with her progress. She's not well. She's not on her deathbed or anything,'' Ms. Sam said late Monday. While it is unusual to put a pneumonia patient on a ventilator, it does not mean that person is near death, said Dr. John G. Mohler, a University of Southern California lung disease expert who emphasized he had no direct knowledge of Miss Taylor's condition. Doctors may put a patient on a ventilator simply to restore oxygen in the blood to proper levels if pneumonia-related breathing difficulties have reduced those levels, Mohler said. ``It may be that because she is such a prominent person, they are taking a conservative course,'' he added. Miss Taylor has been plagued with health problems for years, particularly back troubles from filming of ``National Velvet' in 1945, when she fell off a horse. In 1983 she acknowledged a 35-year addiction to sleeping pills and painkillers. Miss Taylor has been treated for alcohol and drug abuse at the Betty Ford Clinic. During a nearly fatal bout with pneumonia in 1961, Miss Taylor underwent a tracheotomy, an incision into her windpipe to help her breathe. She appeared at the 1961 Academy Awards with a bandage over her scar as she accepted the ``Butterfield 8'' Oscar.
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