SHARON STONE - 'I'm Fortunate to Have Survived'

BLEEDING IN HER BRAIN NEARLY KILLED HER IN 2001. THE STAR SHARES HER DIFFICULT ROAD TO RECOVERY AND WHAT BRINGS HER JOY

- NIGEL SMITH

These days Sharon Stone loves pickleball and painting—passions she once never thought possible. In 2001 the actress was given a 1 percent chance of living after a ruptured vertebral artery bled into her brain for nine days. She credits her brain surgeon Dr. Michael Lawton with saving her life.

Stone, now 65, says the repercussions from her unexpected health crisis were devastating and long-lasting. At the time—five years after an Oscar nomination for Casino—she was thriving. She had just adopted her son Roan, now 23, with her husband, newspaper editor Phil Bronstein. But following the incident, her marriage fell apart (she and Bronstein divorced in 2004), and, she says, Hollywood stopped calling. She focused on her health and happiness and “grew as a person,” she says.

Today, she’s on the board of the Barrow Neurological Foundation, the medical institute Lawson leads in Arizona, and is hosting its annual Neuro Night fundraiser on Oct. 27.