The owner was able to escape unharmed, along with their pets, but I understand the house itself was totaled.
Yeah, the building was destroyed. I was wondering from what I saw of it if it was a converted garage.
This is apparently based only on a Facebook posting of a reported friend of hers. None of the major news outlets are confirming her death yet.
FWIW Wiki has removed her name from the deaths in 2022 list.
She’s still only mostly dead. Per California law, brain dead is dead.
Hmm, I wonder what the journalistic standard is for reporting someone’s “death.” The AP, New York Times, CNN, etc. are obviously holding off on reporting her as having “died” in spite of this statement.
I think the situation remains the same (brain dead but still on life support):
11:46 AM PT
Anne Heche has died from injuries she suffered last Friday after driving her car through a Los Angeles home … her rep tells TMZ Anne is “brain dead” and under California law that is the definition of death.
The rep adds life support machines are keeping Anne’s heart beating for the purpose of preserving her organs for donations, however, the rep made it clear … Anne has no brain function.
Could staff please just say “died” instead of euphemisms like “passed”? There’s nothing wrong with using a plain factual word for its plain factual meaning.
Not really - “shaken baby syndrome” would be a good example of a brain injury that leaves no external mark. In a crash the same thing can happen to an adult if their brain is shook hard enough inside their skull. That very thing happened to a nephew of mine some years ago.
But this was specifically “anoxic brain injury”, meaning caused by lack of sufficient oxygen getting into the brain. There are all sorts of ways that can happen - her heart might have stopped at one point long enough to cause that, she might have had a stroke, her lungs might have been so damaged that they couldn’t supply sufficient oxygen, she might have inhaled toxic gases in the fire that could chemically interfere with getting oxygen to her cells… and those are just the ones I can think of. Actual medical people might come up with more.
That was one hell of a reflex. I suppose it’s possible, you can watch the video and judge for yourself.
The other thing is that damage accumulates after a burn occurs, as the area becomes inflames and tissue swelling occurs in/around the injury. Which is why sometimes people can still breathe initially even with a lung injury but over time fluid accumulate, swelling cuts off the airways, and the body just can’t get enough oxygen.
Her death was a sad and tragic end. I don’t think we’ll ever know for sure if drugs were involved (apparently alcohol has been ruled out), if there was some sort of mental health issue, if this was some form of suicide, or driving while angry, or a combination.
Yes. The homeowner and all her pets were able to get out with only minor injuries. Otherwise, Lynne Mishele lost everything.
The home owner burned out might be able to sue Heche’s estate for damages, but that could take years. Ms. Mishele’s GoFundMe had a goal of $100k but it’s at $148k as I write so at least she’s getting some help, and help she can access quickly.
To be clear, that’s 148K. I was momentarily appalled.
Thanks for pointing that out, I was able to fix it.
This is incorrect: there are two separate people here–the homeowner and the tenant. We haven’t heard anything about the homeowner’s financial problems; just about the tenant’s.
I expect the homeowner has fire insurance. Plus the Anne’s automobile insurance is also liable. Some comments from her:
Her death is back up at Wiki.
Confirmed.
Still using “dead per California law”, though. IOW, still on life support as indicated at ABC News.
I expect one reason why people expect a fatal head injury to be bloody is because Hollywood always does that. If someone hits their head we are always shown an external wound, and sometimes a gushing one, that is the way to tell the audience that it’s a serious head injury and not a “bonk you on the head and you go to sleep” situation. (Which also is portrayed in an inaccurate way; if you are struck in the head hard enough to lose consciousness that’s a serious wound, you don’t just wake up groggy and unhurt later.)
I don’t blame anyone for assuming that’s how it works in real life if they’ve been shown that in media over and over again.
Keeping her on life support while brain dead in order to set up organ donations does not seem feasible. The damage to the blood system from severe burns would in turn damage various internal organs.
From the NIH: “But when faced with large or deep burns, it can overreact, often making the injury more severe and harming the heart, lungs, blood vessels, kidneys, and other organ systems.”
She’s on life support while the doctors determine if there are any transplantable organs which have not been harmed.
There are also situations where solid organs cannot be donated, but tissues can - bone, skin (although not in this case), cartilage, tendon, vein, etc.
David Letterman has posted an Anne Heche interview to his Youtube channel, if anyone is interested in clicking on it…
[The above posts were at 2:59 and 3:14 pm EDT respectively]
The BBC was reporting her dead since as early as 3:00 pm EDT (1900 GMT), maybe earlier (I caught it on their 1900 GMT news).
It’s possible that the doctors in the hospital with Heche did not rely on an online NIH fact sheet but instead based their decisions on their medical judgement and the actual situation in front them.