Last week, actress Anne Heche was involved in a terrible car accident that caused a fire and led to the destruction of a residence. Heche was rushed to the hospital following the accident and while her initial state was unclear, her injuries were described as not life threatening. While that may technically be true, a new statement from Anne Heche’s reps makes it clear that her injuries are quite serious, perhaps more than initially indicated.
A representative for Anne Heche spoke with Deadline, and while they did say the Six Days, Seven Nights actress was in “stable” condition on Saturday, it appears Heche has been in a coma since just after the accident, and she needs mechanical help to breathe. They’re now calling her condition “critical.” According to the rep…
At this time Anne is in extreme critical condition. She has a significant pulmonary injury requiring mechanical ventilation and burns that require surgical intervention. She is in a coma and has not regained consciousness since shortly after the accident.
Support for Anne Heche has been pouring in since news of the crash broke. On Friday Heche was driving through a neighborhood in Los Angeles when she crashed into a building. She reportedly sped away from the scene of that accident, before crashing again some miles away. The second crash started a fire which engulfed both the vehicle and the home she had crashed into. Firefighters apparently had to work for 65 minutes before Heche could be pulled from the vehicle, which goes to explain the severity of the burns on her body.
Initial indications were that Anne Heche was doing significantly better than this description indicates. We thought that while the road to recovery might have turned out to be long, it seemed that she would recover. But now it looks like those early reports may not have been entirely accurate and Heche may be in far worse shape than we thought.
If Heche has a lung injury that means she can’t breathe on her own, and she hasn’t been conscious since the accident, then the road to recovery will be a long one indeed. She needs to overcome these current medical obstacles before she can even begin long term healing.
At this point, there’s no information about what may have led to the crash itself. Deadline reports that the LAPD has obtained a court order to do a blood draw on Anne Heche. However, it had been said previously that due to the burns on her body getting such a draw was not possible, so it’s unclear if the blood draw has actually happened.
One certainly hopes that Anne Heche is able to recover, even if it is a long and difficult process. Neighbors of Lynne Mishele, the woman whose house was largely destroyed by the fire have started a GoFundMe page and have raised more than $110,000 so far.