Actress Anne Heche remained in a coma, in critical condition and on a ventilator after a car she was in crashed into a home in Los Angeles on Friday, her representatives told media this week.
“She has a significant lung injury requiring mechanical ventilation and burns requiring surgery,” Michael A. McConnell, a representative for Ms Heche, told Reuters. He also said she was in a coma and had not regained consciousness since shortly after the accident.
Mr McConnell did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment on Wednesday. Another representative for Ms Heche, Holly Baird, said she did not have an update on the actress’ condition.
Ms Heche, 53, was seriously injured on Friday when the Mini Cooper she was traveling in crashed into a two-story house in the Mar Vista neighborhood of Los Angeles, causing severe damage and a fire that set more than an hour to turn off. authorities said.
A spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Police Department, Officer Norma Eisenman, confirmed earlier this week that Ms Heche was involved in the accident. Authorities did not say Ms. Heche was driving, but they said she was the sole occupant of the car.
Ms Heche was pulled from the car and taken to hospital with “serious injuries”, police said.
It took 59 firefighters and more than an hour to extinguish the blaze that broke out after the crash, the fire department said.
Los Angeles Police Department Officer Rosario Cervantes said Wednesday that the cause of the crash is under investigation and no charges have been filed. She said that after the accident, a warrant was obtained for a blood sample taken the day of the accident.
“The investigation is continuing pending the blood result,” said Officer Cervantes.
Ms. Heche began her career in daytime television, playing good and bad twins on the NBC soap opera “Another World,” for which she won a Daytime Emmy in 1991 for Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series.
In the late 1990s, she appeared in several popular Hollywood films, starring Johnny Depp in “Donnie Brasco”, Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman in “Wag the Dog”, and Harrison Ford in “Six Days Seven Nights”.
She had a three-year relationship with comedian Ellen DeGeneres which ended in 2000.
Ms. Heche has had roles in several TV shows, including 2006’s ‘Men in Trees’ and 2009’s ‘Hung’. More recent film credits include ‘The Best of Enemies’ (2019), ‘The Vanished’ (2020 ) and “13 Minutes” (2021). In 2020, she competed on ABC’s “Dancing With The Stars” and was eliminated after four weeks.
Livia Albeck-Ripka contributed report.
