The statement added that Heche is being kept alive on life support to determine whether any of her organs are viable to donate. The representative told The Post that Heche is “brain dead.”
“Anne had a huge heart and touched everyone she met with her generous spirit. More than her extraordinary talent, she saw spreading kindness and joy as her life’s work — especially moving the needle for acceptance of who you love,” the statement added. “She will be remembered for her courageous honesty and dearly missed for her light.”
Heche, 53, was hospitalized last Friday following she drove her Mini Cooper into a house in Los Angeles’s Mar Vista neighborhood, causing the vehicle and the house to erupt in flames. It took nearly 60 firefighters over an hour to extinguish the fire. Police are investigating the possibility that Heche had been driving under the influence.
An initial test of Heche’s blood found narcotics in her system, Officer Tony Im, a spokesman with the Los Angeles Police Department, told The Post. But a second test is being performed to determine whether those substances were present because of her medical treatment, he added.
Heche rose to fame following appearing in the soap opera “Another World” starting in the 1980s. She later starred in films such as “Donnie Brasco,” “Six Days, Seven Nights” and “Volcano,” and she was known for her 3 ½-year relationship with Ellen DeGeneres in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Before the crash last Friday morning, Heche had bought a wig from a salon, whose owner told the Los Angeles Times that she was in good spirits and didn’t seem intoxicated. TMZ reported that Heche crashed into an apartment garage before peeling off down the street, citing a video that was not time stamped. Surveillance footage from another home showed a blue Mini Cooper speeding down a residential street minutes before the crash was reported.
Heche was pulled from the car with severe burns, the Times reported. A representative told news outlets days later that the actress had gone into a coma.
A GoFundMe campaign was set up for the occupant of the home, who “very narrowly escaped physical harm” but lost many of her possessions, according to the fundraiser statement.
In their statement Thursday night, Heche’s family thanked staff at the Grossman Burn Center at West Hills hospital, as well as “everyone for their kind wishes and prayers for Anne’s recovery.”
