Heather was admitted to the hospital after a bout of illness. It was discovered that she had an acute intestinal obstruction.
Although she had emergency surgery, she succumbed to complications from septic shock. The film’s third opening features a dedication to her memory.
Pictures of Heather O’Rourke
ABOUT HEATHER O’ROURKE
On December 27, 1975, the child star born in San Diegowas discovered by director Steven Spielberg while having lunch in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios with her mother and her older sister. Her older sister Tammy O’Rourke was working as a dancer in the film “Pennies from Heaven.”
Spielberg, who was the horror film producer, hired her after the audition in which she did the ‘scream’ test that convinced him to cast her even though she was only five years old. The film was a blockbuster and was infamous for the mysterious deathsof four of its characters.
Heather was born to Kathleen and Michael O’Rourke. His father worked as a builder and his mother as a seamstress. Her parents divorced in 1981. Her mother married Jim Peele in 1984, while her family lived in Anaheim’s trailer park.
Heather’s success enabled her family to purchase a home at Big Bear Lake in California. Heather attended Big Bear elementary school while working as an actor. Her family was living in Lakeside, California, at the time of her passing.
HEATHER’S ILLNESS
In early 1987, the little girl fell ill with what was eventually misdiagnosed as Crohn’s disease and subsequently underwent medical treatment during the making of “Poltergeist III – Here we go again.”
The film’s shooting lasted from April to June of that year, with June 1988 being the expected date for the film’s release, and Heather was able to finish her part.
In reality, she suffered from giardiasis, which was silent until the morning of February 1, 1988, when Heather fell ill and was rushed to the hospital. The doctors discovered that she had suffered from acute intestinal obstruction. She was 12 years old when she died.
Heather O’Rourke is attempted to be captured by evil spirits in a scene from the film ‘Poltergeist,’ 1982
HEATHER’S “UNUSUAL DEATH”
In January 1988, Heather began showing flu-like symptoms. She collapsed at home the following day and was taken to El Cajon Community Hospital. Paramedics managed her cardiac arrest and restarted her heart.
Later, they flew her to San Diego Children’s Hospital where they found that she had an intestinal obstruction and performed emergency surgery. Mike Meyer, the actress’s lawyer, and the manager said that her intestine’s section burst the following ballooning to four inches in size.
Congenital stenosis (complicated by septic shock) was her cause of death.”Happy Days”
Her cause of death was congenital stenosis of the intestine complicated by septic shock. Daniel Hollander, the chief of gastroenterology at the University of California, Irvine Medical Center, said her death was “quite unusual” because she lacked previous symptoms of the bowel defect. He said,
“I would have expected a lot of (digestive) difficulties throughout her life and not just to have developed a problem all of a sudden.”
However, he also said it is possible for congenital bowel narrowing to cause sudden symptom-free death if an infection had caused the bowel to rupture. It was very rare for the disorder to kill an older child and lacked initial symptoms.
Heather O’Rourke in. He speculated that the narrowing of her bowel might not be congenital but may have occurred suddenly as a result of inflammation.”The Woman In White”
He further speculated that her bowel narrowing might not have been congenital but could have developed suddenly due to inflammation. Because the defect is often present at birth, it is easy to see. It can cause severe abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, or both.
Dr. Frank Sinatra of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles’ gastroenterology department stated that congenital intestinal narrowing could cause sudden death if the bowel burst or ruptures.
Heather O’Rourke. Also, Dr. Paul Hyman at Harbor-University of California Los Angeles Medical Center stated that although mild bowel narrowing may not cause symptoms, it can cause sudden death. Meyer added that the strange thing about this is that everything has happened too fast.”Second Time Around”
Also, Dr. Paul Hyman, chief of pediatric gastroenterology at Harbor-University of California, Los Angeles, Medical Center, stated that moderate bowel narrowing at birth might not cause symptoms. Still, a lack of symptoms before age 12 ″would be distinctly unusual.″
Meyer went on to say that it was weird as everything had happened too quickly. He said: ″It’s weird. They thought she had the flu Saturday. She was perfectly healthy on Saturday. On Sunday, she died.” Another doctor, Dr. Hartley Cohen, a USC gastroenterologist, said, “It doesn’t make sense.
Heather O’Rourke in “Happy Days”
KATHLEEN ON HER DAUGHTER’S DEATH
Furious over her daughter’s death, in May 1988, Kathleen filed a wrongful-death suit in California Superior Court in San Diego County. She claimed that her daughter’s illness was misdiagnosed, and this eventually caused her death.
The primary defendants of the suit were the Kaiser Foundation Hospital and Southern California Permanente Medical Group, a plan in which a rotating staff treats patients of physicians.
Heather O’Rourke held by JoBeth Williams in a scene from “Poltergeist.”
She stated that she had received a letter—dated March 30, 1987—from Dr. James Tipton of L.A.’s Kaiser Foundation Hospital saying there was “conclusive radiographic evidence for Crohn’s disease [a chronic inflammation of the bowel].”
The lawsuit charged that the operation performed on Heather on the day she died at Children’s Hospital and Health Center in San Diego conclusively established that she did not have Crohn’s disease but congenital stenosis that led to an acute bowel obstruction.
Heather O’Rourke photographed at a Photo Studio Session in Los Angeles, California.
Kathleen argued that it was an intestinal blockage that had probably been present since birth. If they had read the X-rays appropriately, it would have disclosed that the condition should have been treated surgically and not with only medications.
However, the Kaiser spokesman Alan Mann maintained that they had reviewed the case extensively and were satisfied that the diagnosis and the care provided were accurate.
Heather O’Rourke in “Happy Days”
In her lawsuit, the Beverly Hills attorney Sanford Gage, Kathleen’s lawyer, revealed that she sought unspecified damages. “It covers both the personal loss [the emotional stress suffered by Heather’s mother] and the economic loss.”
For Kathleen, the loss was tremendous, and she remembered that she had told Heather, “I love you,” and Heather replied, “I love you, too.” These were their last words to each other before Heather passed on.