BIOGRAPHY: THE LAST YEARS
In 1992, when Hepburn returned to Switzerland from her visit to Somalia, she
began to feel abdominal pains. She went to specialists and received inconclusive
results, so she decided to have it examined while on a trip to Los Angeles in
October. On November 1, doctors performed a laparoscopy and discovered abdominal
cancer that had spread from her appendix. It had grown slowly over several
years, and metastasized not as a tumor, but as a thin encasing over her small
intestine. The doctors performed surgery and then put Hepburn through
5-fluorouracil Leucovorin chemotherapy. A few days later, she had an
obstruction. Medication was not enough to dull the pain, so on December 1, she
had a second surgery. After one hour, the surgeon decided that the cancer had
spread too far and could not be removed.
As Hepburn was unable to tolerate a commercial flight, Givenchy arranged for
socialite Bunny Mellon to send her private jet to Los Angeles to take Hepburn
home to Switzerland. Mellon filled the cabin with flowers. Audrey Hepburn died
of the cancer on January 20 1993 , in Tolochenaz, Vaud, Switzerland, and was
interred there. She was 63 years old.
Credit: Wikipedia