When the stars gathered for the final moments of week 4 on season 14 of DWTS, former "Little House on the Prairie" actress Melissa Gilbert was not among them. Commenting that you never know what might happen on a live show, Tom Bergeron announced,"She injured herself, and as a precaution she's gone to the hospital to get checked out."
He promised an update on Tuesday night, but nervous onlookers couldn't wait that long for news. Even as the paparazzi were chasing after the ambulance that was speeding Melissa to Cedars Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, DWTS fans took to the Twitterverse to find out what happened. Their concern was heightened by the fact that during the previous week's annual "most memorable year" show, Melissa had picked the year she recovered from surgery after a broken back.
To everyone's relief, though, a back re-injury was not the problem. Melissa herself tweeted at 12:44 a.m.: "I'm alright. Mild concussion and whiplash. Very soon I will be safely home resting and being taken care of." Two minutes later she sent a tweet to @GavinDeGraw, saying, "you are my champion. I adore you. bless your heart for carrying me down those stairs!"Then responses started pouring in wishing her well, including a tweet from the "Unofficial Fan Twitter dedicated to Maksim Chmerkovskiy, Melissa's partner on the show: "Thank God! So relieved to hear you're alright! Thanks for updating us. We were all very worried!"
Almost prophetically, Melissa had blogged earlier in the week on People.com with a post she entitled "This Week Has Been a Killer." "Here's what I've had working against me," she wrote. "I will be 48 in a few weeks – definitely past retirement for a dancer. My spine is fused in two places now – last surgery was about a year and half ago. I was not in the best cardiovascular shape of my life when this started."
Even so, the plucky redhead did a creditable job on the dance floor on rock-and-roll night, performing a forceful paso doble to "Conquest" by the White Stripes and garnering 22 points. Lead judge Len Goodman, always tough to please, said, "I liked it. You came out with confidence and attacked the dance." And Carrie Ann Inaba said this was Melissa's "best performance by far." Theydid not know at the time that she had been injured seriously enough to warrant being whisked away to the emergency room the minute she was off camera. She had hit her head on the floor at one point during the routine but the incident wasn't obvious to viewers.
Will she be back to dance another day? Woody, the self-appointed "King of the Paparazzi," seemed to think so. He posted a YouTube video of Melissa leaving the hospital on the arm of her husband in the proverbial dark of night, still wearing her glittery DWTS gown and managing a faint smile. "She's tough," Woody pronounced. "She's a trouper" He added that he's sure she'll be on hand on Tuesday evening. We shall see!
