Kaley Cuoco Shared That She Almost Had Her Leg Amputated After an Equestrian Accident

A decade ago, Kaley Cuoco was involved in a horseback riding accident that nearly caused her to lose her leg. Though she has spoken about the incident in the past, she offered up more details about the situation and her subsequent recovery as she spoke about the new book that chronicles the show that made her a household name, The Big Bang Theory. In an excerpt of The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series by Jessica Radloff shared by Vanity Fair, Cuoco and the team at the show shared their concerns that she would lose her leg and how it was one of the scariest times of the series' 12-year run.

Back in 2010, when Cuoco was riding at a Los Angeles ranch, her horse got startled and threw her. Unfortunately, the horse landed on her leg and she suffered severe injuries.

"That was the darkest, most frightening time in all 12 years [of the show]," creator Chuck Lorre said of the accident. "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," Cuoco's co-star Johnny Galecki added.

Lorre noted that within hours, Cuoco was "in surgery with the best surgeons available to stop an infection because her leg was wide open."

In the book, Cuoco revealed all the uncertainty that came after the accident. She also noted that it's still a sensitive topic and she doesn't like talking about it.

"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,' " Cuoco said in an excerpt. "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. 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."

Cuoco was written out of two episodes of the show as she recovered, but Lorre said that an amputation may have ended the sitcom.

"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!'"