Priscilla Presley is opening up about the devastating moment she took her daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, off life support. And it is absolutely heartbreaking.
In an excerpt of her upcoming memoir, Softly, as I Leave You: Life After Elvis, shared with People on Wednesday, Priscilla recalled the harrowing moment her daughter was hospitalized and later passed away.
As Perezcious readers know, Lisa Marie died at age 54 on January 12, 2023. Her cause of death was small bowel obstruction that developed after a bariatric surgery years earlier. Lisa Marie’s ex-husband, Danny Keough, was the one to find her unresponsive in her home. He called Priscilla, and she rushed to the hospital to meet them.
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Recalling that difficult day, she told People:
“We were there all day long. Lisa really wasn’t breathing, so she was on the ventilator. For hours we were there waiting, hoping and praying until the doctor came in and said, ‘Priscilla, I’m so sorry, she’s gone.’ We just couldn’t believe it — didn’t want to believe it. It was hard on all of us, it still is.”
The family has also been through a lot of other challenges in the last few years, including the death of Lisa Marie and Danny’s son Benjamin in 2020. The matriarch shared:
“It hasn’t been easy at all. But you have to find strength.”
In the excerpt, Priscilla details what it was like gathering in the hospital — and painfully waiting and hoping for a better outcome than they were met with. She wrote:
“I knew from the first moment I walked into Lisa’s hospital room that she was already gone. She was hooked to a machine that was breathing for her, and she had a heartbeat. There was little brain activity. Her spirit, always so vital, wasn’t there.”
But it wasn’t just machines communicating the loss. Lisa Marie’s daughter Riley Keough knew, too — despite being hours away:
“Riley later told us that while she was still on her flight, she had felt her mother’s spirit pass. But none of us was ready to give up yet.”
Whoa. What a tough feeling that must’ve been. Elvis Presley‘s ex-wife continued with the moment a nurse informed her that her son Navarone Garibaldi was at the hospital:
“I asked her to bring him into the room. Then we began to wait. Finally, Navarone voiced the question we were all thinking. How long until we knew if she was going to start breathing again? The doctor said it could be two minutes. Or it could be two days. After two hours, Navarone couldn’t take the anxiety any longer. He left to go into the other room.
The others were allowed in one or two at a time. Danny and I remained, holding Lisa’s hands, stroking her face, telling her we loved her.”
Eventually, The Naked Gun actress had to leave the room to collect herself:
“At some point, I remember that a nurse took me into the other room, where [my cousin] Ivy stepped forward to meet me. The nurse told Ivy to see to it that I ate and drank something. My cousin took my arm, but then we heard an emergency alarm from Lisa’s room. It was a code blue; Lisa’s heart had stopped. As I started back to my daughter, the nurse detained Ivy and spoke to her in a whisper.
Nodding toward me, she told Ivy, ‘Come with us. I need you to stand right behind her. She’s going to fall, and you will need to catch her.’”
So sad.
The grieving mother then had to make the most gut-wrenching decision:
“The next thing I remember is the doctor talking to me. He asked me what I wanted him to do. They had restarted Lisa’s heart, but there was no guarantee it would keep beating. I asked the doctor, ‘What kind of life will she have if we keep her on that machine?’
He looked at me with compassion and shook his head. ‘No quality of life at all.’
I thought about my girl, my wild, rebellious, passionate girl, lying in a vegetative state for the rest of her life.
I said what I had to. ‘Take her off the machine, Doctor.’ My voice was barely above a whisper.”
Oof. That must’ve been so hard. The memoir continued:
“The nurse began to unhook the apparatus that kept Lisa’s chest rising and falling. I looked at Danny and said, ‘We have to tell them, Danny. So they can say goodbye.’
But as I began to move toward the door, I heard Danny’s anguished cry. ‘No, Nona! Don’t go! We can’t leave her all alone!’
It was unbearable. I began to sob. I don’t remember falling. I know that Ivy caught me. After that, everything went dark. I can’t remember. I don’t want to remember.”
A heartbreaking read. We can’t imagine how emotional it was in that hospital room. So, so sad.
Speaking to People, the actress noted she finds inspiration from her son Navarone and granddaughter Riley, as well as Riley’s two young children. She shared:
“That’s what makes me happy: knowing everyone is doing well.”
It’s taken a long time to get to this place, though. Understandably so. We’re wishing them all well as they continue to grieve this loss.
The book will hit shelves on September 23. Will U be reading?
[Image via MEGA/WENN/Daniel Tanner]
The post Priscilla Presley Recalls ‘Unbearable’ Moment She Took Lisa Marie Off Life Support: ‘Her Spirit Wasn’t There’ appeared first on Perez Hilton.