Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of rock and roll legend Elvis Presley, has died after having a cardiac arrest at the age of 54, according to reports.
“It is with a heavy heart that I must share the devastating news that my beautiful daughter Lisa Marie has left us,” her mother Priscilla Presley said in a statement on Thursday. “She was the most passionate, strong and loving woman I have ever known.”
Paramedics rushed to Presley’s Calabasas home after receiving a call that the singer was experiencing cardiac arrest, according to TMZ. She was reportedly given CPR and epinephrine was administered on the scene to help her regain a pulse, before being taken to the hospital.
An LA County Sheriff’s Department spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter that deputies attended a property in Calabasas for an unnamed woman in her 50s who had a cardiac arrest. The fire department got a pulse before she was taken to West Hills Hospital.
A cardiac arrest is when the heart suddenly stops beating and pumping blood around the body, starving the brain of oxygen, and leading to a loss of consciousness and stopping breathing, according to the British Heart Foundation.
Cardiac arrests can be caused by reasons including a heart attack, congenital heart disease, heart valve disease, inflammation of the heart (acute myocarditis), and inherited heart conditions such as cardiomyopathy. They can also be caused by electrocution, drug overdoses, severe hemorrhages, and hypoxia, the BHF said.
If someone is having a cardiac arrest, they will suddenly collapse, lose consciousness, be unresponsive, and either will be breathing abnormally (such as gasping), or won’t be breathing at all, the BHF said.
Older people, men, and those with underlying heart conditions are more at risk of cardiac arrest, but anyone can have one. Women are more likely than men to be older if they have a cardiac arrest, according to a 2019 study published in Circulation.
About one in 10 cardiac arrests are linked to physical exertion, according to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. More than 356,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA) occur every year in the US, with nearly 90% of them being fatal, according to a 2022 American Heart Association report.
