Singer Lisa Marie Presley’s daughter Riley Keough is shedding new mild on a number of the well being challenges her mom confronted all through her life in a brand new memoir titled “From Right here to the Nice Unknown.”
As Keough writes within the ebook’s foreword, Presley requested her daughter to assist write the ebook shortly earlier than her dying in January 2023.
The completed product options reflections on Presley’s fascinating life from each mom and daughter, and descriptions the star’s struggles with opioid dependancy, physique picture and coronary heart well being.
Under, be taught in regards to the numerous well being challenges Presley encountered earlier than her dying.
Presley had an opioid dependancy
Following the delivery of her youngest youngsters, twin daughters Harper and Finley in 2008, Presley started taking the opioids she’d been prescribed for ache following her C-section, Keough writes within the memoir. Over time, she additionally started taking them to assist her sleep.
Earlier than then, Keough, Presley’s oldest little one, mentioned her mom had solely had a “transient stint with medication as an adolescent” and “had by no means touched them once more.”
Within the memoir, Presley reveals she “began upping the drugs” after she left the church of Scientology.
“I believed, ‘Oh my God, I’ve misplaced my faith and it’s been my solely pavement to stroll on, my alternative household.’ The whole lot was gone—all my associates, the whole lot,” she wrote. “I knew it was over. And I used to be so devastated, I used the medication as a coping mechanism.”
Keough additionally notes that her mom began “ingesting extra, taking extra opioids.”
“At one level she discovered an article that mentioned cocaine may also help individuals get off opioids, so she started to do cocaine to get off the opioids after which opioids to get off the cocaine. Her dependancy would proceed by means of the entire stints in rehab on the idea that she was at all times in extreme and life-threatening withdrawals that no physician might perceive,” Keough wrote.
The evolution of Presley’s dependancy
Presley admitted to taking as many as 80 drugs a day as her dependancy worsened.
“It took increasingly to get excessive, and I actually don’t know when your physique decides it may well’t take care of it anymore. Nevertheless it does resolve that sooner or later,” she wrote.
A court docket ordered Presley to attend rehab in Los Angeles and medical doctors gave her medicines to wean her off opioids. As Keough explains within the memoir, these new medication “solely served to make her much more excessive as a result of regardless of the regular dose was, she would by some means get 5 occasions that quantity from the medical doctors.”
After rehab, Presley was on “temper stabilizers” that Keough says have been “dimming her mild.”
Presley would later have a seizure that helped her achieve extra perspective on her dependancy.
“In the future she mentioned to me, ‘That’s sufficient. I actually need to vary my life.’ She had been very chastened by the seizure—the truth is, she had a deep phobia about them,” Keough writes.
Presley went into cardiac arrest earlier than her dying
Earlier than she died in January 2023, Presley went into cardiac arrest.
Per the American Coronary heart Affiliation, the guts “malfunctions and immediately stops beating” through the medical occasion. It differs from a coronary heart assault, which happens when “blood circulation to the guts is blocked.” Nonetheless, a coronary heart assault may end up in ventricular fibrillation, which might result in sudden cardiac arrest.
Keough writes in regards to the cardiac arrest and notes that her father had gone over to Presley’s home on Jan. 12, 2023 to carry her Tums since she’d mentioned her abdomen was “hurting worse than ever.” Later, Keough’s father informed her Presley was in an ambulance and the paramedics thought she had a coronary heart assault.
After resuscitating Presley and discovering a pulse, hospital employees did a scan on Presley. Keough later discovered that her mom had been in cardiac arrest once more. Shortly afterward, Presley died.
Presley had household historical past of coronary heart points
Dr. Sheila Sahni, heart specialist with Hackensack Meridian Well being’s JFK College Medical Heart, beforehand informed TODAY.com {that a} household historical past of coronary heart illness can improve girls’s danger for coronary heart issues.
Presley’s father, Elvis Presley, died from a coronary heart assault on the age of 42. In response to NBC Information, the guts assault might have been associated to his dependancy to pharmaceuticals.
“There’s household historical past associated to cardiac arrhythmias (irregular heartbeat), and there may be household historical past associated to coronary artery illness, and it’s crucial to know the age at which it manifested in one in every of your bloodlines,” Sahni mentioned.
“Within the case of Lisa Marie, it’s crucial (for her medical doctors) to know that her father additionally (died) at a younger age and what his cardiovascular situation (was),” she added.
Presley’s prior coronary heart failure is printed within the ebook
Elsewhere within the ebook, Presley and Keough write about Presley experiencing coronary heart points earlier than she entered rehab.
Presley famous that she had accomplished “a bunch of blow and a shot of tequila and a bunch of drugs” and her youngsters urged her to see a health care provider as a result of her physique “was not doing effectively.”
When she arrived on the hospital, she was “at 30 heartbeats per minute” and was “scared to dying.”
“My echocardiogram got here again dangerous. I used to be actually dropping my coronary heart. My coronary heart was lifeless, simply in items,” she wrote.
Keough elaborates on her mom’s situation in a observe up passage and mentioned her mom was “in coronary heart failure” and went “straight from the emergency room to the ICU.”
Presley had her uterus eliminated in 2022
Within the memoir, Keough additionally reveals Presley had her uterus eliminated in 2022.
“Although she was combating to maintain it collectively for my sisters, my mother’s well being was deteriorating—she had began to say that her abdomen was at all times bothering her. She would have spells of fevers. She was making an attempt to remain impressed and maintain on to hope, however beneath the whole lot, there appeared to be a heartbreak that was solely rising. And regardless of my fixed scheduling of appointments, she would by no means see a health care provider,” she wrote.
An an infection later resulted within the elimination of the star’s uterus.
“It was extremely laborious for her,” Keough writes.
Afterwards, Presley’s well being issues persevered.
“In the future in October that 12 months, all of us went to Disneyland. As we have been about to get on a trip she sat down on some stairs and mentioned she didn’t really feel effectively, that she was actually nauseated. Once more, I urged her to go to the physician, and once more, I received no response,” Keough wrote.
Presley’s reason for dying was a small bowel obstruction
An post-mortem that was made public six months after Presley’s dying in 2023 revealed that the star died from issues from a bariatric weight-loss surgical procedure she’d undergone years earlier than.
Extra particularly, Presley’s reason for dying was a small bowel obstruction, a situation that happens when a part of the small gut is blocked.
Presley’s bariatric surgical procedure
Keough mentions her mom’s bariatric surgical procedure within the memoir, writing, “Whereas in rehab, Mother had determined to get bariatric surgical procedure. Her whole life she had been harassed for being fats. The surgical procedure was one thing she’d at all times wished.”
Bariatric surgical procedure is a class of weight-loss surgical procedures that alter the digestive system. Kinds of bariatric surgical procedures embody gastric bypass and sleeve gastrectomies, per the Mayo Clinic.
“Whereas bariatric surgical procedure can provide many advantages, all types of weight-loss surgical procedure are main procedures that may pose dangers and negative effects. Additionally, you will need to make everlasting wholesome adjustments to your weight-reduction plan and get common train to assist make sure the long-term success of bariatric surgical procedure,” the web site reads.
Within the memoir, Keough explains that she thought it was a “unusual time to resolve to have surgical procedure” since her mom was in rehab for substance abuse and wasn’t accomplished together with her program.
“I bear in mind worrying that it was a option to keep on treatment somewhat bit longer. I didn’t really feel she was able to be sober,” she wrote.
Presley’s small bowel obstruction
Bariatric surgical procedures can generally lead to a small bowel obstruction. Per the Cleveland Clinic, the situation most frequently happens within the small gut and includes “a partial or full blockage.”
“Your small gut connects to your abdomen at one finish and your giant gut on the different. Along with shifting meals and water alongside to your giant gut, your small gut breaks down meals and absorbs water and vitamins from them.” the web site reads.
When a blockage happens, “waste, gasoline and digestive juices can get caught behind the blockage, damaging the tissue.” This may end up in “harmful issues.”
Presley’s post-mortem report famous that her obstruction was “attributable to adhesions (bands of scar tissue) that developed after bariatric surgical procedure years in the past.”
Indicators of illness earlier than Presley’s dying
Per the coroner assigned to Presley’s case, the star had belly ache on the morning of the day she died and for months beforehand. She additionally reported bouts of nausea, vomiting and fevers.
Earlier than her dying, Presley’s stomach was extraordinarily swollen, per the post-mortem report. She additionally had extreme metabolic acidosis, which the Cleveland Clinic describes as a situation during which too many acids construct up in your physique’s fluids.
In her mom’s memoir, Keough writes about a number of the warning indicators that Presley was unwell main as much as her dying, saying there was a “unusual vitality on the finish of 2022.”
“Uncommon issues stored occurring together with her well being. She developed an an infection and needed to go to the hospital in November…. Issues began cascading. She would always complain about her abdomen, about feeling nauseated. She would drink plenty of Pepto-Bismol, which was at all times by her mattress. I might inform my sisters have been anxious, too—they’d usually ask me, ‘Is Mama going to be okay?’ she writes.