Entertainment legend Bert Newton has reportedly been forced to have his leg amputated after suffering from an infected toe.
Entertainment reporter Peter Ford said that the 82-year-old has been battling a serious health problem and said that it was a “life or death” decision to have the amputation.
Newton was in hospital over Christmas with a toe infection and his condition continued to deteriorate.
“It got worse … he was seeing doctors and specialists and they couldn’t seem to get it right, it kept on spreading. Basically he was told last week, you have a couple of months to live, or if you have your leg amputated, you’ll probably have a few years. So, he agreed to have the leg amputated on Saturday,” Ford told Ross and Russel on 3AW on Monday.
“So that was the choice and Bert obviously chose to stick around.”
The adjustment will be tough for the Newton family as they currently have stairs in their home and will need to convert them for Bert.
“It’s a big decision for anyone to make, but it’s also a practical thing, because they live in a two-storey place with the bedrooms and the bathrooms upstairs, so they’re now having to convert the house downstairs because Patti doesn’t want him to go into a nursing home,” he said.
“They said, ‘We had a choice. Other people don’t have a choice. Bert wants to keep on living, because he adores Patti, his children and his grandkids, and he wants to have as much time as he can with them’.”
“He’s in reasonably good spirits,” Ford said.
This article originally appeared on Over60.