Victor Spinelli
Gary Coleman's "wife" Shannon Price has allegedly sold photos of the dying actor during his final moments in the hospital where he was taken last month following his fatal head injury (and her horrifying 911 call). But wait, this gets worse -- Price has reportedly sold a handful of the images, asking a fee "in the low five figures," according to TMZ.com.
If true, we can only ask -- what is this woman thinking? Well, it turns out Price, 26, has been given a chance to tell us, in an in-depth interview with Entertainment Tonight airing this week, all about what it was like during the former child star's final moments, her decision to take him off life support, and what was really going on during her 911 call, in which she resisted providing aid.
"The doctors advised me that he wasn't going to make it," Price tell ET about why she took Coleman off the life-support machines on May 28, two days after he suffered at brain hemorrhage at age 42. "His heart was giving out, it was going to stop regardless. It was the most difficult decision I've ever had to make in my entire life. Seeing Gary in that circumstance... it was best for him to go and not suffer. He was already a vegetable."
"He was gone immediately," she continued. "When they took him off, his heart rate went down to 60 and then when they turned the machines off, he was gone that quick."
And in the ET interview, Price also reveals Coleman's last words: "He said, 'I love you and my head hurts.' Those were the last [words] he said to me because he was in a lot of pain."
Fighting medical battles throughout his entire life, and undergoing heart-valve surgery last fall to replace his aortic valve, Coleman's heath was rapidly declining, according to Price.
"His body was failing him.... Since he was born, he had all of the kidney problems since he was young. After he had heart surgery they said he wouldn't make it a year.... Then, he had a new dialysis access catheter put in and they still said that they didn't think he was going to make it a year."
As for her questionable behavior during the call she made to a 911 operator after Coleman fell down and hit his head in the home they shared (she told the operator: "I've just been kind of sick. I don't want to be traumatized right now"), Price says she was just stunned. "I was frantically panic-stricken, because I didn't know what to do," she told ET. "I didn't know what the extent of the damage was. So I ran back upstairs to grab the phone, to call 911 and then he was starting to wake up."
"I know a lot of the rumors that are out there right now and, you know, nobody else would know what it was like to be in that situation until you're in that situation ... A lot of people didn't think I was there for him and so I would definitely have tried to fix what I had said in the call."
Though the couple had filed for divorce in the past (a divorce Coleman's lawyer says was finalized), Price says she and Coleman managed to work out their differences and were planning a future together before his death. "Gary and I, we had some disagreements on things, and we didn't think things through completely all the time," she admits. "We had rash decisions and when we both filed and everything went through, we decided that's not what we wanted. So, we reconciled and we were actually going to renew our vows very soon."
As for Coleman's funeral, it was reportedly canceled after a feud between Price and Coleman's parents; Price says she is simply trying to abide by the actor's wishes.
"Gary didn't want a funeral and he didn't want a viewing. He didn't want people to see him that way. So, like I said, Gary is my best interest right now so I'm going to do what he wants."
The full interview with Shannon Price begins airing Monday night on Entertainment Tonight.
PLUS: Details about Gary Coleman's Fatal Fall
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