Actress Anne Heche is in much worse shape than it appeared over the weekend following a fiery car crash. According to Anne Heche’s rep, the actress is in “extreme critical condition” and has been in a coma since shortly after the accident.
In a statement to Deadline, the rep said, “At this time, Anne is in extreme critical condition. She has 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.”
This story began to take shape on Friday when a car that Heche was driving crashed and caught fire in the Mar Vista area of Los Angeles. Before the fiery crash took place, Heche was filmed on Ring Cams and other surveillance video driving erratically and speeding in the minutes before the accident. Before the more severe crash, Heche got into another minor accident blocks away from the crash site after she ran her car into a garage, which TMZ picked up. A podcast has also been released featuring Heche slurring her speech, and it has been linked to the crash. The podcast was recorded Tuesday but indicates that the actress may have had issues with alcohol. Earlier Monday, Los Angeles Police Department Officer Annie Hernandez told City News Service that a warrant had been obtained for a blood draw from Anne Heche to determine if alcohol was a factor in the crash.
Fifty-nine firefighters battled the fire after the car crash, which engulfed Heche’s car and the house she crashed into. The firefighters fought the fire for 65 minutes until Heche could be safely pulled out of the wreckage. The actress could communicate at the time, and some video shows her thrashing about on the stretcher before she was taken to the hospital, but she lost consciousness shortly after that.
The woman who lives in the home, Lynne Mishele, “very narrowly escaped physical harm,” according to her GoFundMe page set up by her neighbors. As of this morning, more than $105,000 has been raised to assist Mishele in trying to rebuild following this horrible accident.