Famous actress Tatum O’Neal has revealed that she nearly died from a drug overdose in May 2020 after falling into a coma.

“I almost died,” O’Neill said in a recent interview. people. The actress explained that her overdose caused a stroke that changed her life and left her in a coma that lasted as long as six weeks.

O’Neal became addicted to drugs prescribed to treat neck and back pain and rheumatoid arthritis. On the day of her overdose, she was taking a combination of painkillers, opiates and morphine.

O’Neal’s family knew she was on a dangerous path as her battle with addiction worsened. “It was the call we’d been waiting for all along,” said her eldest son Kevin McEnroe. “There were times when she didn’t think she would survive,” he said, according to People magazine.

O’Neill’s overdose caused a number of serious health problems that the famous actress had to contend with all at once.

“She also had cardiac arrest and a few seizures,” McEnroe said. O’Neill’s children worried she would never be able to walk or speak again when she woke up from her coma.

O’Neill was diagnosed with aphasia due to damage to the part of his brain that controls his ability to speak. “I also had damage to my right frontal cortex,” McEnroe said.

“Sometimes it was a touch-and-go situation,” he says.

“I had to call my brother and sister to tell them they thought she was blind, deaf and might never speak again.”

After six grueling weeks, O’Neill awoke from a coma, but it soon became clear that he had a long road to recovery.

“She didn’t know where she was,” Kevin said.

“She couldn’t say ‘scary,'” he told People magazine.

It was a difficult time for O’Neill’s family as they were unable to visit him in hospital or even hold his hand due to the strict COVID-19 measures in place at the time.

Over the past three years, O’Neill has undergone intensive rehab and therapy to regain his strength, memory and basic skills. (Related: Soap opera legend reveals serious health update)

“I’ve been through a lot,” she said.