LOS ANGELES — “Star Wars” actress Carrie Fisher was in critical condition Friday after suffering a “cardiac episode” during a flight from London to Los Angeles, according to airline and emergency officials.
Fisher, 60, was rushed to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center by Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics shortly after noon, after her 11-hour flight touched down at LAX.
Todd Fisher said Friday night that his sister is receiving excellent care but that he could not classify her condition. He had earlier told The Associated Press that she had been stabilized and was out of the emergency room. In a subsequent interview, he said many details about her condition or what caused the medical emergency are unknown.
Earlier, a source who was not authorized to discuss the incident said the actress was “in a lot of distress on the flight.”
A statement released by United Airlines said that medical personnel met Flight 935 from London on arrival after the crew reported a passenger was unresponsive.
Just prior to arrival, a pilot told the control tower that passengers who were nurses were attending to an “unresponsive” passenger.”
“So they’re working on her right now,” the pilot said in a public recording of the conversation on liveatc.net.
According to the LAX Police Department, officers responded to Terminal 7 around 12:15 p.m. for a call of a female passenger in cardiac arrest. On arrival, they found paramedics performing CPR on her, according to Officer Alicia Hernandez.
Todd Fisher told the AP that much of what had been reported about the incident was speculation.
Carrie Fisher, who rose to stardom as the character Princess Leia, recently published an autobiography, “The Princess Diarist.”
She is the daughter of famous Hollywood couple Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher.
Fisher has written and spoken openly about her struggles in Hollywood. She took on her prickly relationship with her mother in the book-to-movie “Postcards From the Edge.”
