Kaley Cuoco Nearly Had to Amputate Her Leg Following Equestrian Accident

Kaley Cuoco is sharing the details of a terrifying horseback riding accident that almost required her leg to be amputated more than a decade ago. The actress opened up alongside The Big Bang Theory co-star Johnny Galecki and show creator Chuck Lorre in an excerpt from The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series shared with Vanity Fair.

In September 2010, Cuoco was riding a horse at a Los Angeles ranch when her horse spooked, causing her to fall off. The horse then landed on her left leg, leaving the star with severe injuries for which she was immediately hospitalized. “That was the darkest, most frightening time in all twelve years [of the show],” Lorre said. “Kaley could have lost her leg. It was a series of miracles that allowed us to get through that and for her to come out the other end of that healthy.”

“They were talking about amputating her leg, which was devastating to hear,” Galecki added. Lorre called it “heaven-sent” that he soon ran into Dr. Stephen Lombardo, a part of Kerlan Jobe Orthopedic Clinic for Sports Medicine at Cedars-Sinai, and within two hours, Cuoco was “in surgery with the best surgeons available to stop an infection because her leg was wide open.”

Cuoco explained, “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.’ That wasn’t the case, obviously, but I had to sign something that said, ‘OK, you can.’” While everything ended up “fine,” doctors prepared Cuoco to possibly never walk again. “It’s still too much for me to go into, and it sounded way worse than it was,” she recalled. “And of course, it was spiraling and everyone was freaking out, which I get. It scared people.”

Galecki chimed in, “But I think it scared people in a good way, myself included. The first day I saw you in that state, I just shed tears in my garage.” While doctors originally didn’t think Cuoco would be able to walk for months, she was back on her feet in a walking boot after just two weeks. Cuoco’s character Penny was written out of The Big Bang Theory for two episodes as a result, but Lorre said an amputation could have been the end of the CBS show altogether. “It was an absolutely miraculous intervention that I ran into Dr. Steve,” Lorre said. “Every time I see him, I say, ‘Thank you! You saved Kaley! On a lesser level, you saved The Big Bang Theory!’”