Los Angeles: American actress Anne Heche, 53, has died after she was pulled off life support following a car crash a week ago.
On the morning of August 5 (US time), Heche’s car smashed into a house in a neighbourhood in west Los Angeles and a fire erupted with the car embedded inside the home.
Anne Heche, pictured at a premiere in December last year, is not expected to survive after a car crash last week.Credit:AP
She was in a coma and in a critical condition at the Grossman Burn Centre at West Hills hospital north of Los Angeles, suffering a “severe anoxic brain injury”, according to an earlier statement. Such an injury is caused by a sustained lack of oxygen to the brain.
Earlier on Thursday, police said they were investigating Heche for driving under the influence. Detectives with a search warrant took a sample of her blood and found narcotics in her system, LAPD spokesperson Officer Jeff Lee said.
Toxicology tests, which can take weeks to complete, must be performed to identify the drugs more clearly and to differentiate them from any medication she may have been given for treatment at the hospital.
Evidence is still being gathered from the crash, police said, and they would present a case to prosecutors if it is warranted when the investigation is complete.
Heche, 53, was among the most prominent film stars in Hollywood in the late 1990s, playing opposite actors including Johnny Depp in Donnie Brasco and Harrison Ford in Six Days, Seven Nights. In a 2001 memoir, she discussed her lifelong struggles with mental health.
She recently had recurring roles on the network TV series Chicago P.D. and All Rise, and in 2020 was a contestant on Dancing With the Stars.
AP
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