Liz Taylor 'is put on life support after heart failure'

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 4:36 PM on 31st July 2008

Elizabeth Taylor was put on a life support machine after suffering congestive heart failure, it was reported this evening.

The 76-year-old's condition was said to have deteriorated after she was initially diagnosed with pneumonia last week.

Her children were at her bedside and doctors warned she might not survive, said the U.S. publication National Enquirer.

Health fears: Elizabeth Taylor was reported to be 'still very sick'

But the following day she improved and the dual Oscar winner was breathing without medical help last night.

A source said: 'The doctors thought they were going to lose her. She's still very sick, but she's past the crisis.'

The actress, a mother of three who adopted a fourth child with Richard Burton, was taken to hospital on July 15 when flu turned into pneumonia.

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Miss Taylor, who has been married and divorced eight times and was made an honorary dame by the Queen in 2000, has been plagued by ill-health.

She suffers from diabetes and congestive heart failure - where the heart is too weak to pump blood around the body - has had both hips replaced and had a benign brain tumour removed in 1997.

She is confined to a wheelchair because of osteoporosis.

But she has fought hard to regain her health in recent years, with some observers even suggesting she has hopes of a film comeback.

In 2006 she went on the U.S. chat show Larry King Live to dismiss claims that she had Alzheimer's and was close to death.

Last year she was photographed swimming with sharks off the coast of Hawaii.

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