(Los Angeles) American actress Anne Heche has been pronounced dead after being seriously injured in a car accident in Los Angeles last week, a spokeswoman said on Friday.
Posted at 6:18 a.m.
Updated at 6:52 p.m.
The 53-year-old actress had been in a coma in hospital since a serious brain injury caused by a violent collision on August 5.
Having lost all her brain functions, Anne Heche “is legally dead according to California law”, but her heart is still beating in order to facilitate organ donation, her spokeswoman Holly Baird told AFP.
“Today we lose a radiant light, such a gentle and joyful soul, a loving mother and a loyal friend,” the family said in a joint statement.
“Anne will be deeply missed, but her wonderful sons, her immense work and her passionate struggles will outlive her,” she adds.
PHOTO TAYLOR JEWELL, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES
Anne Heche in January 2017
Anne Heche acted in a large number of films in the 1990s, including Six Days Seven Nights Where Donnie Brasco. She is also known for her role in the soap opera Another Worldwhich won him a Daytime Emmy Award in 1991.
In the 1990s, she had a high-profile relationship with presenter Ellen DeGeneres.
The actress has been in a coma since her car crashed into a two-story home in the Mar Vista neighborhood, “causing structural damage and a massive fire,” according to Los Angeles Fire Department.
Los Angeles police said in a statement Thursday that they would be conducting blood tests on Mr.me Heche and that the investigators would “present the case to the appropriate judicial authority”. The police, however, did not give any details on possible legal consequences.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY TVA FILMS
Anne Heche and Ashton Kutcher in a scene from the film Spread
Local media reported on Thursday that preliminary tests had come back positive for narcotics. But other tests must be conducted to ensure that the positive result is not related to medical treatment.
According to celebrity coverage publication TMZ, which cites unnamed law enforcement sources, Ms.me Heche tested positive for cocaine and fentanyl, an ultra-potent and addictive synthetic opiate used in some treatments.
“My brother Atlas and I have lost our mom,” his son Homer Laffoon said in a separate statement. “I hope my mother is no longer in pain,” he added.