Melissa Gilbert once had a brutal fall on 'Dancing With the Stars' and had to be taken to a hospital

'Little House on the Prairie' alum Melissa Gilbert suffered a huge setback on the set of 'Dancing With the Stars.' In an April 2012 episode of 'DWTS' Season 18, Gilbert performed Paso Doble with her partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy. During her performance, Gilbert hit her head on the ballroom floor. Despite that, Gilbert completed her act and bagged a score of 22 out of 30 from the judging panel. At one point following her performance, Gilbert was so dizzy that singer Gavin DeGraw had to carry her down from the stage’s elevated “red room” and out of the studio. Soon after, Gilbert was put on a stretcher and rushed to the hospital in an ambulance.

Then, Gilbert wasn't the only person who was hurt, as her partner Maksim also injured himself. In an interview with People magazine, Maksim's brother, Val Chmerkovskiy, talked about his health. "He hurt his elbow during rehearsal, doing one of the tricks. And now he pulled his groin," Val told the media outlet, as per ABC News. At the end of the episode, host Tom Bergeron shared a quick update about Gilbert and Chmerkovskiy: "If you are wondering why Melissa and Maks are not here, she injured herself and, as a precaution, has gone to the hospital to get it checked out."

While chit-chatting with XfinityTV, DeGraw shed light on the whole incident that saw the light of day on the set of the ABC dance competition. "It seemed like she had hit the back of her head. I guess she may have hit the floor at some point during the dance. We put an ice pack on her head," DeGraw shared at that time, as per Today. Around the same time, actress and comedienne Sherri Shepherd shared a similar story. 

In an interview with Us Weekly, Shepherd said, "She hit her head during her dance, and then after she felt a little dizzy, so they took her to the hospital just to get checked out and make sure she was okay. I think she'll be all right, though." Then, 'DWTS' pro dancer Karina Smirnoff also mentioned that DeGraw "carried her down to the red room" because Gilbert "was too weak to walk." Smirnoff further added, "After that, the show kept going, and we had to dance." Apart from this, DeGraw stated, "My arms were tired by the time I started the dance after carrying her!"

Later on, Gilbert took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to share with her fans what was going on with her. "I'm all right. Mild concussion and whiplash. Very soon, I will be safely home, resting and being taken care of," Gilbert wrote. Just a few months after she fell on 'DWTS,' Gilbert experienced another mishap when the balcony of a house she was renting in Studio City collapsed over her head. During an interview with People magazine in May 2016, Gilbert candidly spoke about the terrifying incident and recalled, “I was standing under the back balcony talking to my kids, and it detached from the house and it collapsed on my head. I ended up with a concussion and stitches in my head, and it compressed two healthy discs in my neck.”