PITTSBURGH — Linda Marchiano, the porn queen-turned PTA member who gained fame as Linda Lovelace in "Deep Throat," underwent a 14-hour liver transplant operation today and was in critical condition, standard following the procedure.
Marchiano, 37, who lives on Long Island in New York, went into surgery about 10:30 p.m. Thursday, and the operation was completed about 12:30 p.m. today, said Tom Chakurda, a spokesman for Presbyterian-University Hospital.
Marchiano had been on a waiting list since last fall. Doctors believe her liver was damaged by hepatitis contracted through a blood transfusion following a 1970 auto accident.
Marchiano's liver problems were discovered in September while she was being evaluated for a double-mastectomy. Her breasts, she said, were damaged by silicone injections but the doctors said no mastectomies could be performed until the liver problem was corrected.
In her 1980 book, "Ordeal," she described herself as a "prisoner of a sadist," ex-husband Chuck Traynor. She claimed she was beaten, raped and forced into X-rated perversion by him--often at gunpoint.
By the time she made "Deep Throat" in 1972, Marchiano said, "I was a robot who did what I had to to survive."
She is now married to a plaster worker and is the mother of two children.
