Eva Perón was a movie star who went on to serve as First Lady of Argentina from the inauguration of her husband Juan Perón in 1946 until her death in 1952. She was extremely popular with everyday Argentinians, and is revered there to this day. Evita was only 33 when she died of cancer. But few people know that Perón underwent a lobotomy only a few weeks before her death, which was most likely done without her consent or possibly even her knowledge.
Perón made her last public appearance at her husband's second inauguration in June 1952. Though the surgery she received possibly calmed her anxieties, it also may have worsened her physical health. After the lobotomy, she stopped eating, and by the time of the event she weighed just 78 pounds. She was so frail that she needed a cage-like contraption made of plaster and wire to stand.
The lobotomy was said to have been a treatment for pain, or it may have been to relieve anxiety over her impending death. Or was it to calm her ever more erratic political pronouncements? Read what we know about Eva Perón's lobotomy at Mental Floss.
(Image credit: Iberia Airlines)