The Oscar-winning actress overdosed in May 2020, and has been working to regain the ability to read and write.
Tatum O'Neal is opening up about a near-fatal overdose she suffered in 2020 that has left her with a years-long recovery journey.
In a new interview with People, the 59-year-old actress is joined by her son, Kevin McEnroe, as she details the moment in May 2020, when she overdosed on combination of painkillers, morphine and opiates. Following her near-fatal overdose, the Oscar-winning actress suffered a severe stroke and was in a coma for six weeks.
"I almost died," the Paper Moon actress tells the magazine.
In the interview, 37-year-old Kevin shares that he and his siblings have always been prepared to receive that news.
"It was the phone call we'd always been waiting for," Kevin says. "She also had a cardiac arrest and a number of seizures. There were times we didn't think she was going to survive."
O'Neal, who notes "I've been through a lot," has spent the last three years in rehabilitation centers, doing daily therapy and working with her physician to repair the damage and regain her memory, strength and ability to read and write. While in the hospital, the actress was also diagnosed with aphasia -- a disorder that is the result of damage to the part of the brain that's responsible for speaking.
Kevin notes that he had feared that his mother would never fully recover, and that when she first came out of the coma, she had no idea where she was.
"At times, it was touch and go," Kevin shares. "I had to call my brother and sister and say she was thought to be blind, deaf and potentially might never speak again."
He continues, "She didn’t know where she was. She couldn’t say, 'I'm scared.'"
O'Neal -- who also shares children Sean, 35, and Emily, 32, with ex-husband John McEnroe -- has been open about her past struggles with drug addiction, which Kevin has also faced. Today, the God's Not Dead actress says she is taking it day by day.
"I’ve been trying to get sober my whole life," she says. "Every day, I am trying."
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