 Suffering from recurrent headaches, her strict diet routine (she used to not eat anything from the night before her performance, save for water) in part made her oblivious to her own sickness.Arleen Auger retired in February 1992, after being diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour, a mass in the right parietal lobe of her brain which turned out to be a giant cell glioblastoma.She underwent three brain surgeries, flying back to the U.S. to receive medical attention at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.