Emmy winner Anne Heche’s condition has not improved after she crashed into a house in Los Angeles on Friday morning.
A representative for Heche told People in a statement Monday afternoon that the actor remains in critical condition.
“She has a significant pulmonary injury requiring mechanical ventilation and burns that require surgical intervention,” the statement said. “She is in a coma and has not regained consciousness since shortly after the accident.”
Heche, 53, suffered burns after her Mini Cooper hit a home in Mar Vista that was being rented by Lynne Michele, who was able to escape the fire that engulfed and destroyed the house and Heche’s car.
Earlier in the day, witnesses told TMZ that they saw Heche hit a garage of an apartment complex near Michele’s house and then drive off.
Police obtained a warrant to draw blood from the actor, CNN reports. Authorities are investigating Heche for misdemeanor DUI and hit and run after the crash. An LAPD officer told the outlet that they are still waiting on the results of the blood tests.
“Anne is in the ICU; she’s lucky to be alive,” a source close to Heche told CNN Saturday. “She has severe burns and has a long recovery ahead. Her team and her family are still trying to process what led up to the crash.”
Heche and Ellen DeGeneres were in a relationship from 1997 to 2000 and were a high-profile couple, with many public appearances, especially around the time of DeGeneres’s coming-out in 1997.
Their breakup was also very public, amid reports that Heche was wandering disoriented along a road in central California and entered a stranger’s home. The couple released a statement calling their parting “amicable.” Heche later said that being in a same-sex romance cost her work in Hollywood, but she was proud to have been “part of a revolution that created social change.” In an interview with Page Six last year, she said studios didn’t want her in their movies for several years and that she felt like “patient zero in cancel culture.”
“This wasn’t a long-term love affair,” she told Page Six of her relationship with DeGeneres. “This was a moment in my life when I was given the glory of being able to stand up for what I believe in and have since I was a kid.”
Heche’s films include Donnie Brasco, Wag the Dog, John Q, and Gus Van Sant’s remake of Psycho. She has appeared in numerous TV series including Men in Trees and Hung and was Emmy-nominated for one of them, Gracie’s Choice. She won a Daytime Emmy for her role in the soap opera Another World early in her career, and she received GLAAD’s Stephen F. Kolzak Award in 2000, honoring her as an LGBTQ+ media professional who has advanced acceptance of the community.
More recently, she has been writing a second book and has had many acting jobs. She has had a recurring role on the TV series All Rise and has wrapped a Lifetime movie, Girl in Room 13.