Oscar winner Tatum O’Neal revealed she had a near-fatal drug overdose three years in the past that led to a stroke.
The actress, who has lengthy struggled with substance abuse, overdosed on “a combination of pain medication, opiates, and morphine”, which left her in a coma for six weeks, experiences Page Six.
“I almost died,” O’Neal, 59, advised People of the May 2020 incident, noting she had been an “addict [her] whole life, pretty much on and off, for the past 30 to 40 years”.
O’Neal’s son Kevin McEnroe, 37, alongside together with his siblings Sean, 35, and Emily, 32, admitted they thought it could be the final time they ever spoke to their mom.
“It was the phone call we’d always been waiting for,” Kevin advised the outlet.
“She also had a cardiac arrest and a number of seizures. There were times we didn’t think she was going to survive.”
The Paper Moon star has spent the previous few years in rehab centres, relearning find out how to learn and write and dealing to regain her power and reminiscence.
“I’ve been through a lot,” O’Neal stated, noting she was abusing ache treatment at first of the Covid-19 pandemic after being prescribed it for her neck and again ache and rheumatoid arthritis.
After overdosing, the mom of three was discovered by a buddy in her Century City, California, condominium and rushed to the hospital.
She was recognized with Aphasia, a dysfunction that normally happens abruptly after a stroke or a head damage, per the Mayo Clinic.
“She had become very isolated. With the addition of morphine and heavier pharmaceuticals, it was getting scary. Covid, chronic pain, all these things led to a place of isolation. In that place, I don’t think, for her, there was much hope,” Kevin stated.
“At times, it was touch and go,” he went on, explaining that she “had damage to her right frontal cortex”.
“I had to call my brother and sister and say she was thought to be blind, deaf and potentially might never speak again.”
In truth, O’Neal couldn’t converse in any respect when she wakened from her coma.
“She didn’t know where she was. She couldn’t say, ‘I’m scared,’” Kevin stated.
However, after two years of rehabilitation work with “medical supervision and therapy”, the actress has begun regaining her reminiscence.
“Emotionally the things that made my mom want to take drugs in the first place, those things are still very present,” her eldest son, who has additionally struggled with substance abuse, defined. “She could always want sobriety as a mom, but she never really wanted it for herself.”
Kevin famous that his mum has now “embraced this attempt” at restoration.
“She was always a very loving mum but when isolated, I think it was hard to find any love for herself,” he shared.
“This last chapter where she wants to live, wants to get sober, wants to learn, I think it’s a miracle. I think it’s beautiful. I’ve never been more proud to be her son. She’s full of love and full of heart … it’s a miracle to behold.”
O’Neal reiterated that she is “trying” on daily basis as a result of she needs to be together with her “beautiful three kids,” whom she shares with former tennis professional John McEnroe.
The couple wed in 1986 however cut up in 1994 amid a bitter divorce and nasty custody battle.
The actress is the youngest Oscar winner of all time because of her position within the 1973 movie Paper Moon reverse her father, Ryan O’Neal.
This article initially appeared in Page Six and was reproduced with permission
Source: www.news.com.au
