Winner denies amputation reports

Winner reportedly reacted to medication taken to control a fever.

Veteran film director and columnist Michael Winner has denied he may be forced to have a limb amputated.

Winner, 71, is being treated at a private Harley Street hospital after what is thought to have been a reaction to medication taken while on holiday.

Some newspaper reports had claimed he had been given the choice of losing a leg, or dying.

But in a statement he said his limbs were "solidly where they have been for many years".

Winner was taken to the Bayview Hospital in Barbados by ambulance on 3 January.

Heart bypass

The statement read: "I have been interested in recent newspaper reports suggesting I had lost, or was about to lose, one leg, two legs, an arm, a head - some people suggesting this went some time ago! - or even a fingernail.

"I am happy to tell you that, when I last looked, all of these items appeared solidly where they have been for many years.

"I am further advised that the chance of any of them leaving my persona are non-existent. So if you see a leg lying around, it is not mine, unless, of course, it is firmly attached to my body."

Winner underwent a heart bypass operation in 1993. The film director, best known for cult movie Death Wish, remains in hospital but is making good progress, the clinic said.