What Happened To Gary Coleman?
Why was Gary Coleman's ex-wife allowed to pull the plug?
Gary Coleman's shocking death at the age of 42 last week has raised more questions than it's answered, and one of the most pressing is how his ex-wife, Shannon Price, behaved during Gary's final hours. A divorce lawyer has confirmed that the two were not married at the time of Gary's death, yet Shannon was still allowed to make the decision to remove life support. What happened here?
Gary was hospitalized last Wednesday after falling and hitting his head. In the 911 tape TMZ has obtained, Shannon can be heard saying that she is in the other room from where her ex-husband was lying, bleeding, and couldn't go help him because the blood would make her sick. She says on the tape, "I don't want to be traumatized right now." Shannon also said that she didn't drive Gary to the hospital herself because she had a fever.
Gary was reported to be awake and lucid on Thursday morning, but he slipped into a coma later that day and was placed on life support. On Friday Shannon, who according to the hospital was empowered to make Gary's medical decisions regardless of their marital status by an Advance Health Care Directive, decided to remove life support and Gary passed away.
It's very strange that Gary and Shannon kept their divorce a secret, and stranger still that he did not change that Advance Health Care Directive after their breakup. The whole situation is really quite sad, that there was no one else in his life to be with him or make those decisions other than the woman with whom he'd had a relationship fraught with domestic disturbances. Gary was estranged from his parents, so it seems that Shannon was all he had. With Rue McClanahan's passing today, we are just unspeakably depressed.
Via Celebitchy. Photo via Bauer-Griffin.