Tanya Roberts, who starred in the 1985 James Bond movie A View to Kill, has died of a urinary tract infection (UTI) that spread to other parts of her body. She was 65.
The news of her death came after a bizarre turn of events.
Roberts’ publicist Mike Pingel said initially that the star collapsed at home on Christmas Eve after walking her dogs, according to TMZ.
She was then rushed to the hospital and put on a ventilator, but never recovered and died on Sunday (January 3), according to the news outlet.
Roberts partner Lance O’Brien told the outlet he was unable to visit her in the hospital due to COVID-19 restrictions, but hospital staff made an exception because the actress probably would not survive. O’Brien believed Roberts died during his visit and then relayed the news to Pingel.
However, on Tuesday, Pingel confirmed that Roberts actually died on Monday night.
Pingel told Metro.co.uk, “With a heavy heart I can confirm the death of Tanya Roberts (age 65) last night on January 4, 2021, around 9:30pm PT at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA.”
He also confirmed that her cause of death was “a urinary tract infection which spread to her kidney, gallbladder, liver and then bloodstream.”
Dr. Benjamin Brucker of NYU Langone Health told Health, “The urinary tract is the term used to include all the parts of the urinary system, which includes the kidneys, ureters (small tubes that connect the kidneys and the bladder), the urinary bladder, and the urethra (the tube that connects the bladder to the outside).”
Any one of these organs can become infected with a pathogen, mostly bacteria in the gastrointestinal system.
“The bacteria find themselves in the urinary tract and cause inflammation as your body starts to react to the infection, Dr. Brucker explained. “In most cases, when we talk about a UTI we are talking about an infection of the bladder or a condition called acute bacterial cystitis. This is what classically causes burning with urination (dysuria), frequency, and urgency of urination.”
He said in some cases, the immune system could strongly respond to an infection, which is called sepsis, a condition that manifests symptoms such as fever, shaking chills, and very low blood pressure, according to Dr. Brucker. It is possible for a UTI to result in sepsis and become fatal. “Death is not the normal outcome from something like cystitis or an uncomplicated bladder infection,” Dr. Brucker explained.
