Anne Heche is currently in critical condition in the ICU on a ventilator following an accident on Friday in which she drove her Mini Cooper into a home. That accident was her third that day; she previously committed a hit and run at a garage and then narrowly missed a pedestrian and ran into a car instead. Footage from the residential area of the time leading up to the final crash show her driving at a very high speed. The home she hit and its contents were destroyed by the resulting fire, but the resident escaped with her pets and not much else. Anne is suffering severe burns and was the only person injured.
ET Online has quotes from sources close to Anne. They say her family and friends are pulling for her and that her son Homer, 20, is advocating for her care. (Anne also has a 13-year-old son, Atlas.) What’s more is that her loved ones understandably find the headlines difficult to see.
A source tells ET that the Emmy-winning actress is surrounded by her family members who are hoping for a recovery. “Her family is on pins and needles, just praying.”
Revealing that Homer is taking the lead in making sure her mother is getting the best care, the source explained, “He’s being as strong as he can be. Her family is ready to surround her, and be there if she wakes up. Everyone is waiting for that to happen…”
In the days following Heche’s highly publicized car crash and ensuing investigation, more and more details have surfaced regarding what could have led to the wreck.
Another source tells ET, “Anne’s friends and family are absolutely devastated and heartbroken. It has been difficult for them to read the salacious headlines [and] reports about Anne. They feel as though her character is being attacked. They are trying to focus on getting Anne better, and it’s very hard when they have these negative distractions. Anne is in a coma and fighting for her life. She has no voice here.”
As many of you mentioned in the comments to our last story, the conversation around Anne’s accident would be different if anyone else was hurt that day, and they easily could have been. She’s now fighting for her life. I don’t have much compassion for impaired drivers, but I can imagine how tough it must be for her family, especially when her accident is dominating the news cycle.
Photos credit Avalon.red, Backgrid and via Instagram
Honestly this could have gone so much worse for her. Not more that 10 miles from her, a black woman who was impaired killed 6 people to include an 11 month year old. That woman is already in custody. I pray that Anne’s son has a lot of support while he manages her affairs. It’s sad all the way around.
Just curious: why does the race of that nurse matter? And who says she was impaired? All I’ve seen is that she has had prior mental health issues.
She also has been purportedly involved in 13 other wrecks.
Her lawyer said in court that she has “profound mental health issues.” Her race doesn’t matter but an impairment would, when considering what charges to file against her.
IMO her ethnicity matters because she it does matter. She’s not in Lynwood Central infirmary. Heche is in a private hospital with her support system. Even though there are documented hit an runs which are felonies.
The woman from the La Brea crash only had moderate injuries and was released from the hospital. Anne is in a coma in critical condition. Two completely different situations. Race is 100% irrelevant in these two cases.
There is a perception of sympathy surrounding Anne Heche that isn’t there for the nurse, even though both of them did the exact same thing, which is drive reckelessly through the streets without concern or caring for other people. Luckily in Anne’s case, she didn’t harm or kill anyone else, although she came very close to doing so. Even though Anne didn’t kill or harm anyone (except herself) like the nurse, she deserves the same level of scorn the nurse is getting. Sorry to her sons, but the headlines, social media and TMZ didn’t do this. Your momma did this. Anne deserves zero sympathy. Her children deserve all the sympathy in this case because they will have to deal with the fallout from this for years to come.
There is no evidence that the nurse in the other accident was impaired. There was no alcohol in her system. According to comments made in court by her lawyers, there is a history of mental health issues.
The story about Anne in the papers seems sympathetic. My thought was that her PR folks are doing a good job. I’m not sure what her family is reading that they find so objectionable and if they do, they should stop reading the news or stay off Twitter.
Is there no other family who can step in? No ex-husband or siblings who can deal with the doctors. It’s a lot for a twenty year old to handle.
Mental Illness is an impairment too.
Anne’s family is a mess. She and her mother are long-term estranged (her mother is an activist for conversion therapy). Her ex husband and her had a terrible divorce when she cheated on his with her co-star (the husband is Homer’s father, the co-star is the father of the younger child but they are no longer together). I think the son may be the only next-of-kin she really has.
No need to mention race here.
+1
Why did you feel the need to mention the person’s race? What does her race have to do with her actions?
Exactly. Look at Henry Ruggs who was a wide receiver for the Raiders. Guy should never have a license again.
Yes, I’m sure other families whose loved ones have hurt people are also pained by public reaction. Not sure about “salacious” – have there been stories about Heches’ sex life?
+1
Until the toxicology report comes back we don’t know that she was drunk and that caused her accidents. She could have had a stroke or something else went wrong. While this seems improbable, all of the speculation is making it more difficult for her children who now face having at best a disabled mother.
I didn’t say anything about speculation, just that the family used the word “salacious,” which means “inappropriate interest in sexual matters” and has nothing to do with toxicology reports.
Thank you! I agree with you- hold off judgement until the toxicology report comes back.
I mean… there’s a picture of her immediately after the first accident with a liquor bottle in her car’s cup holder. I feel like we can be pretty certain there was drinking involved…
Maybe they mean the articles talking about her previously talking graphically about being sexually abused by her father. I didn’t know the details until I started reading articles about her post-accident.
I didn’t know Anne was sexually abused by her father. Her trauma runs deep and I am very sorry for her. Just terrible all round 😔
I was surprised to learn she is in a coma and on a ventilator. The video of her being loaded into the ambulance shows her sitting up and moving around in a very agitated way so she must have gone downhill after that.
She wasn’t pulled out of the car until the fires were extinguished, and that was an hour after the crash, which means she was breathing in hot air and all sorts of toxic gases from the fire. So not only does she have burns on her skin, but she also really damaged her lungs.
I see calls for her to be brought to justice, and I agree with that, but as far as punishment goes, I don’t think society can hurt her more than she hurt herself in this accident.
💯 agree. Whatever was behind her terrible driving, she has given herself a life sentence by refusing to stop after the first two incidents. She will be in a painful prison inside her body for years recovering from this. Justice is important and necessary, but practically speaking…what could prison do to her that will be worse than the recovery from this accident promises to be? I may be speaking from a place of my own fear here, I hate even minor burns… but she was in that car in the middle of a fire for an hour before they could get her out….
Aside from the heat and toxins, fires feed on oxygen and create anoxic conditions. Brain damage starts after about four minutes of not having enough oxygen and she was in that inferno for much longer than that.
So, beyond the external damage she sustained, her lungs have been fried and her brain was subjected to roasting, poisoning, and (likely) extreme cell die off from oxygen deprivation.
There will be no trial and no prison. If this woman survives, it would take a literal miracle for her to be in any way mentally competent to qualify for the process.
The justice that will come will be from lawsuits against her insurance and possibly her estate (such as it is). Of course, any money that she, personally, has, will be sucked dry by astronomical medical bills.
She was probably in shock (physical, medical shock, not an emotion of surprise) when she bolted upright on the stretcher. It’s common. I agree she went down hill, and her coma is most likely induced due to being on a ventilator and she may have brain swelling as well but I wouldn’t read too much into her behavior on the stretcher as an indication of well being.
@pollyv, smoke inhalation causes significant lung injury. Intubation and ventilation are used early before swelling sets in. she will likely be on the vent for at least a week.
People who are hypoxic are irrational and agitated. It’s very common with hypoxemia.
Adrenaline is a wild hormone. It can keep you going and alert for a while. Even if you’re critical.
Why didn’t she call an Uber, a Lyft, a yellow cab to come and get her?, she has millions of dollars in her bank accounts. Why on Earth she didn’t call a friend? This is a horrible tragedy that could’ve been avoided with a simple phone call or using an app on her cell phone. She is totally going to jail or she will be given house arrest for at least a year and she can kiss her driver’s license goodbye forever. Normally an actress like her would be looking for a surgeon to tweak her face, instead she will looking for a plastic surgeon to minimize the horrible scars she will have when she heals. Poor Anne. At least she didn’t kill anyone which is a miracle.
Drunk driving is a misdemeanor, so house arrest or jail time is extremely unlikely. 6 month license suspension and a fine or community service are the most common outcomes.
Civil penalties-lawsuits etc-are greater than the criminal ones.
this case is most comparable to Tiger Woods- Anne (fortunately) didn’t hurt anybody but herself. she may survive, but she killed her career.
It’s insane that drunk driving is a misdemeanor. It is literally attempted murder (except for when it’s actually murder). Come at me with legal definitions of intent but when you drive impaired you’re knowingly taking a risk with a likely outcome of someone being badly hurt or killed. Why in the world is that a misdemeanor??
I think that is the sad part. We as a society do not deal with Drunk drivers in any way that compares to the harm they could cause. Her possible charges are a misdemeanor and hit and run which is also a misdemeanor I think. The civil penalties will end her estate and that is worse than the criminal charges could ever do. She was supremely selfish and her family and the victim of this house fire will ultimately pay almost as steep a price for her actions as she will.
My probably pedantic point earlier was that nothing the law can currently do would punish her worse than what she has done to herself. Her choices backfired spectacularly and I do feel bad for her family as I am sure this has been their biggest fear for years.
She might die. I don’t think anyone is all that worried about what could happen with her driver’s license right at this moment.
@Lolo86If — The reason she didn’t call an Uber or a friend is because she is mentally ill and seems to have suffered a psychotic break. This has happened before (remember when she was found trespassing at a home in Fresno after breaking up with Ellen DeGeneres). She had taken a bunch of ecstasy and made some wild claims about a spaceship taking over the world.
Add to that the very clear possibility that she was drunk (which can wreak havoc if you’re on anti-depressants/anti-anxiety meds) you have a recipe for disaster. She will not do jail time, if she recovers she’ll be unable to return to normal life. She may have brain damage, severe breathing problems, vision problems and restricted movement so she will not be able to drive, and no amount of plastic surgery will erase her scars.
With the damage she did to herself, I honestly don’t think she’ll go to jail. I don’t know of any jails that have the medical resources she is going to need. She is going to be in the burn unit for a very long time and that’s if she even makes it out.
she destroyed a person’s house and could have killed them. it was her THIRD accident that day. not feeling a lot of sympathy for her, sorry.
As someone in recovery – and who has also looked at the photo of her with a Mickey of Smirnoff in her cup holder minutes before the accident, and heard her speak like someone who is drunk to the person who requested her to get out of her car after smashing into the garage complex / I am literally willing to bet my life that she was drunk.
I
All I can think about is a guy I went to high school with, hit by a drunk driver a few weeks before he was supposed to leave for college. He’s been in diapers in a nursing home, unable to feed himself or stand unassisted for decades. His parents have passed away, and he had no idea.
So, I’ll say it again: Mental illness doesn’t cause someone to drive erratically, nearly killing other people. Addictions don’t do that, either. Mentally ill people aren’t more violent or careless with human life than anyone else. To say otherwise is not true, and harms people with mental illness.
Selfish people just don’t care for other human beings, and they’re the ones who are dangerous.
There are families all over the US today who will lose someone they love to selfish people. I have no compassion for anyone who drinks and drives.
If she had a stroke or related, how was she able to back up and speed off from the first two wrecks she’d caused that day?
I’m sorry her family is upset, but addressing her victims is more important than their embarrassment. If they want to do something good, help the woman whose house AH ruined. Help find her a place to live and replace the things she owned before AH demolished her life.
I second this. I lost a very close friend to a drunk driver shortly after we graduated high school and her family has NEVER recovered from her loss. They have become shells of their former selves. Her dad has said multiple times “I think about the pain she must have felt every day, and I feel so guilty that I couldn’t protect her.” Idk why we are so afraid to admit the obvious. She was clearly wasted. That’s a choice she made. She could have stopped before she got in the car. She could have stopped after the first wreck. AFTER THE SECOND WRECK. she didn’t. She CHOSE this. And I’ll save my sympathy.
My heart breaks for her kids. My guess is they’ve been through a lot over the years with her, and this is type of scenario they always feared.
I can’t imagine how impaired she must have been to hit not one but two objects and keep driving, and at that speed. One would think backing into the first garage would have signaled to her “uh oh, maybe I shouldn’t be driving”.
I hope the woman whose home was destroyed is doing ok, I’m sure she was in shock for a while and the reality of all she lost is settling in, plus the realization of how close a call she had physically.
Burn patients are often out in medically induced comas as a means of pain management.
Anne Heche has been seriously troubled for years and periodically seems to lose touch with reality. I honestly think this was an attempt to unalive herself and, if she survives this with those horrible burns, she will probably wish she had succeeded. I feel sorry for her because I wouldn’t wish burn wounds on anyone but, at the same time, I recognize that she has had the means to get help for years and appears to have chosen not to do so. I am sorry for her family as I’m sure the headlines are upsetting but the headlines are not lies. She did this. She destroyed a woman’s home and life and could have killed both her and her pets. The victim here is not Anne, it is the woman whose home and livelihood were destroyed and it was totally preventable. Anne made the choice to drive and it was the wrong choice to make.
I mostly do agree with you, but I just want to add that sometimes people ARE trying to get help, but the help just doesn’t help enough, or they can’t find the right kind of help. I don’t know if that’s true in Anne’s case or not.
I wonder if she was attempting to end her life. I’m sure it is hard for her loved ones to read what is being said on social media. They should avoid it. I have not seen any actual news stories that have been out of line unless you count the one that talked about her being intoxicated on her podcast, which did imply (briefly) that it was recorded before the wrecks.
The lesson here is to report reckless driving. How many people actually call 911 when they see a car driving like this? I always do, because it’s a ticking time bomb. How did her vehicle get into three accidents before authorities were notified? This is a really important question as far as public safety.
Oh I didn’t even think about how her now adult son is the one making medical decisions for her! But he is her only next of kin who can I guess. She isn’t married and I know she has no relationship with her mom (and I dunno about Anne’s siblings?). But he’s so young and only 20, what a huge responsibility for a young man. Oh my gosh, I have so much compassion for him.
And I hope the resident from the home (I think it was a rental) is okay too, she has to completel rebuild her life. I’m sure there will be lawsuits and what not but I doubt Anne will ever be healthy enough to ever stand trial.
I’m sure the woman whose house burned down with all her stuff is also going through some shit. Addiction, trauma and mental illness isn’t a free pass to drive impaired and possibly kill others. She has every resource available to her yet made the decision to drive like this and get into 3 freaking accidents. Many people have similar issues and don’t almost kill people. I don’t have sympathy at this point. She burned a house down with the renter and her animals barely getting out. That woman is the victim, Anne is dealing with the consequences of her own actions. If she really can’t control herself she should have checked into an inpatient clinic and given up her keys. Sorry but her families excuses fall flat at this point IMO.
Exactly. This is horrible all around, I have sympathy for all involved. However the real victim is the woman whose home and life were destroyed. By the time the insurance claims against Anne or most likely her estate are paid out, the Go Fund Me and a chunk of her savings will be gone. Not only does she have to replace everything but I’m sure she’s traumatized as well. Just think how she feels reading all the “Anne has been through so much, poor Anne” articles.
Right?!? As she and her pets stay with friends because her house is in ashes. Even the most sympathetic person would probably tell TMZ to shove it at this point
I doubt she is going to survive, honestly.
Her poor son. This is too much to deal with.