Anne Heche died Friday following a fiery car crash that left her in a coma for a week — with her rep confirming that she is “brain dead,” making her legally dead under California law.
Heche died at a Los Angeles-area hospital, her rep said in a statement Friday. She was 53-year-old.
Heche was involved in a two-car crash in the Mar Vista neighborhood of Los Angeles, first when the Mini Cooper she was driving struck a garage at an apartment complex, and second when she crashed into a house, which resulted in a fire that left her seriously burned.
A video recorded in the moments before the crash shows Heche’s vehicle navigating a neighborhood street at a high speed just a few seconds before the crash.
The vehicle crash and resulting house fire required 59 firefighters to handle the situation, and it took 65 minutes to fully extinguish the fire and rescue Heche from the vehicle.
The house was left structurally compromised and uninhabitable.
Nobody else was injured except the tenant of the house who sustained minor injuries.
Officials said that Heche was “deemed to be under the influence and acting erratically” at the time of the crashes. Preliminary blood analysis confirmed narcotics in Heche’s system, although further toxicology tests will take weeks in order to identify specific drugs
Heche was taken away from the crash site on a stretcher, and was transported to a hospital.
The video showed her sitting up on the stretcher and struggling with paramedics as she was being wheeled into the ambulance before she lost consciousness.
On August 8, a representative for Heche stated that she was in a coma in seriously critical condition, with medical ventilation required for a pulmonary injury.
On August 11, Heche was not expected to survive because of an anoxic brain injury, and that she was being kept on life support to figure out if her organs are viable for donation, in accordance with her expressed wish to be an organ donor before she was declared brain dead on the same day. She remained on life support to assess organ donor viability and locate recipients.
On August 12, she was pronounced dead and her family said they have “lost a bright light, a kind and most joyful soul”.
Los Angeles Police Department investigated the crash.
