Days after colliding with a Los Angeles home in her car and setting both ablaze, actress Anne Heche has slipped into a coma and is still in “severe condition,” according to a spokesperson.
Michael McConnell, a Heche spokesperson, said, “She has a substantial lung injury needing artificial ventilation and burns that require surgical attention.” She has not awakened immediately after the accident and is currently in a coma.
The Los Angeles Fire Department said a car collided with a house in the Mar Vista area on Friday at about 10:55 a.m., starting a “major fire.” 53-year-old Anne Heche was extricated from the Mini Cooper and sent to the hospital.
Despite being in the house at the time of the collision, a woman was unharmed, according to CNN. The woman, who “lost her entire lifetime of things,” according to the fundraiser statement, has a GoFundMe page set up for her.
Officer Norma Eisenman, a spokesman for the LAPD, confirmed to The Washington Post that the LAPD is looking into the circumstances of the collision, including the potential that Heche may have been driving while intoxicated. On the day of the incident, an arrest order for the actress’s blood was acquired, according to Eisenman. Heche has not been charged with any crimes as of early Tuesday.
A request for comment from The Post was not immediately answered by Heche’s reps.
After beginning to feature in the soap opera “Another World” in the 1980s, Heche’s acting career took off. She then starred in movies including “Donnie Brasco” and “Six Days Seven Nights.” Beginning in the late 1990s, she had a relationship with Ellen DeGeneres for three and a half years that received a lot of media attention.
Heche purchased a wig at a salon in Venice, just before the collision on Friday at about 10:35 a.m., according to Richard Glass, the salon’s owner, who also stated that she appeared to be sober and in good spirits. He shared a picture of Heche grinning on Instagram.
Heche reportedly struck an apartment building’s carport that morning, according to TMZ. Though the clip isn’t time-stamped, the media site claims it captured her ripping off following the incident in the video.
According to CBSLA and TMZ, surveillance video from 10:53 a.m. That day shows Heche’s blue Mini Cooper speeding through Mar Vista just before colliding with the house.
A car sped by David Manpearl’s window on Friday morning while he was working at his desk, according to Manpearl, a neighbor of the demolished house. A crash was then heard shortly after.
Manpearl told the AlphaNewsCall Reporter that when he fled his home and rushed down the street, he noticed that his neighbor’s automobile had crashed through the front of the building and was now stuck in the back wall.
He informed the newspaper that after entering, he discovered a barefoot resident asking for assistance with her cats in the center of her kitchen.
Manpearl added that he assisted the resident of the house in fleeing the scene and attempted to assist Heche. “She couldn’t move because the ceiling had broken down, so there were all kinds of debris everywhere,” he claimed.
“Fire started to spread everywhere at that point. We were surrounded by it, Manpearl told the Times. The smoke was thickening as it had moved from the car to the house. In the end, I had to leave the house for my own safety since I continued waiting for the fire brigade to arrive.
Heche was taken to the hospital with serious wounds, and according to CBSLA, the destroyed blue Mini Cooper was later dragged from the residence.