I was going to write about this yesterday, but Kaley Cuoco’s happy baby news broke and took precedent. Kaley is known to be quite the horse girl. And apparently she had a really bad accident 12 years ago, that almost resulted in an amputation. Kaley fell off while she was riding, and the horse ran over her left leg, breaking bones. The injury was really bad and before surgery the doctors warned her she might not come out of it with both legs, and she even had to sign papers noting that she was aware of the possibility. Luckily, she got into surgery quickly and they were able to save the leg.
The Big Bang Theory almost ended a lot sooner than it did.
The Chuck Lorre-created sitcom, which began in 2007 and lasted for 12 seasons, came close to losing one of its stars in Sept. 2010, when avid equestrian Kaley Cuoco was injured in a brutal accident during a lesson, according to People, which cites an excerpt from Jessica Radloff’s new oral history, The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series, obtained by Vanity Fair. It happened as the actress fell off the horse she was riding, only for the horse to step on her left leg.
Cuoco was immediately taken to the hospital, where she was presented with a scary choice.
“Before I went into surgery, they made me sign something that said, ‘We don’t know until we get in there and see this leg, and it could come out that you don’t have it anymore,'” Cuoco said. “That wasn’t the case, obviously, but I had to sign something that said, ‘OK, you can.'”
Lorre recalled the incident as “the darkest, most frightening time in all twelve years” of the Emmy-winning CBS sitcom, and one that could have ended it.
Lorre credited Dr. Stephen Lombardo, of the Cedars-Sinai Kerlan-Jobe Institute, whom he ran into at a truly serendipitous time, with agreeing to help his leading lady — pronto. She was taken into surgery within two hours.
Despite doctors’ predictions that she wouldn’t walk for months, Cuoco was able to leave the hospital in a walking boot after two weeks.
“Everything ended up fine, and I was up and working a week later, but the doctors acted like I was never going to walk again,” Cuoco said. “It’s still too much for me to go into, and it sounded way worse than it was. And of course it was spiraling and everyone was freaking out, which I get. It scared people.”
The month following her injury, Cuoco herself was well enough to appear on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, where she explained that she’d heard her bones breaking, but at the time she was hoping the cracking was from the horse stepping on leaves, not her leg.
This came up in the context of the Big Bang Theory oral history I mentioned in my post about Kaley and her ex-boyfriend Johnny Galecki. Chuck Lorre also talks about the leg accident and while he calls it “serendipitous” timing that he ran into a Cedars-Sinai doctor, it definitely sounds like he was able to use his connections to get Kaley into surgery quickly, therefore saving her leg. Of course that’s absolutely a good thing, but there’s a weird undertone to the story, no? Like saving her leg was mostly important so she could work and keep the show going, and not, you know, so she could live the rest of her life with both legs. And she was working again with a walking boot a week later! They couldn’t have given her some more time off? Jeez.
Anyway, all’s well that ended well. Kaley and Chuck Lorre made a ton of money from that show. Her career is thriving again post-Flight Attendant. And she’s happily partnered and having a baby! Now that the news is out there, Kaley has started posting bump photos to her Instagram stories. Her three-month bump looks like me on a normal day.
photos credit: Avalon.red, Cover Images and via Instagram
She told the story about the leg incident in a Letterman interview years ago.
As an equestrian myself, just here to say I hate when people use the term “fell off a horse” like you just casually lost your balance and slid off. A rider a good as Kaley is either violently thrown off or the horse goes down and takes the rider with it. Even beginners usually don’t “fall off” without some kind of freak situation that unbalanced them (horse trips, bucks, spooks, bolts).
Wow, just think, if she didn’t have a connection to a rich and important man, she might have lost her leg. This speaks so badly of the medical establishment. Not only do you have to be white to get the best care, you have to be white with stellar connections, too. Geez.
I rode horses for about four years as a tween/early teen. I got thrown off at least once (we got to a meadow and my horse got so excited he just had to gallop and buck like a maniac) and almost rolled on at least once. I’m glad I know how to ride, but when I think back on it, that was SO scary.
I’m glad she kept her leg. And kudos to her for literally getting back on the horse.