Priscilla Presley has opened up about the tragic death of her daughter Lisa Marie, revealing it 'took a long time to come to terms with the fact that Lisa was gone'.
Lisa Marie - who is the daughter of music legend Elvis Presley - died aged 54 on 12 January 2023 from a bowel obstruction that developed after bariatric surgery she'd had years before.
Her ex-husband, Danny Keough, had found her unresponsive at home before rushing her to hospital.
In her new memoir, Priscilla, 80, has opened up in depth about her daughter's final hours and the horror of having to turn off her life support.
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"Lisa really wasn't breathing, so she was on the ventilator," she told People.
"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."
Writing in her memoir Softly, As I Leave You: Life after Elvis as part of an excerpt shared with People, Priscilla heartbreakingly reveals that 'from the first moment' she walked into the hospital room, she knew Lisa-Marie 'was already gone'.
She said: "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.
"Riley [Lisa Marie's daughter] 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."
Priscilla went on to detail the ordeal of hearing the emergency alarm go off in the hospital room.
"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," she said. "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'."
Medics had managed to restart Lisa Marie's heart, but had no way of knowing whether it would keep beating, and so the difficult decision to take her off the machine was made.
"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?'" Priscilla recalled.
"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."
Priscilla went on to write that at one point 'everything went dark' and that the whole trauma is so painful that she 'doesn't want to remember'.
"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," she emotionally recalled.
"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."
“It hasn’t been easy at all,” Priscilla said. “But you have to find strength.”
If you have experienced a bereavement and would like to speak with someone in confidence, contact Cruse Bereavement Care via their national helpline on 0808 808 1677.
Chloe Jackson