What (Little) We Know About Catherine O’Hara’s Death

FILE PHOTO: 24th Critics Choice Awards – Arrivals – Santa Monica, California, U.S., January 13, 2019 – Catherine O’Hara. REUTERS/Danny Moloshok/File Photo

The Celebrity Beat…

As everyone knows by now, we lost the beloved Catherine O’Hara this past Friday.

The star of “Schitt’s Creek”, “Home Alone”, “Beetlejuice”, “SCTV”, “The Studio”, and SO much more was rushed to an L.A. hospital in “serious condition“, but didn’t pull through. She was 71.

It was shocking because nobody knew she was even sick.  And there’s still no word on the cause of death, other than, quote, “a brief illness.”

Here’s one thing we do know:  Catherine suffered from a condition called dextrocardia with situs inversus.

It’s a rare birth defect in which the organs in the chest and abdomen are positioned opposite of where they normally are… like a mirror image.  It’s rare, but Enrique Iglesias and Donny Osmond also have it.

Catherine didn’t find out about it until she was an adult, and there’s no word if it contributed to her death.

Symptoms can include breathing problems, fatigue, frequent sinus or lung infections, jaundice, and pale or bluish skin due to low oxygen.  But sufferers can also lead a perfectly normal life.

Catherine was last seen in public about three months ago, and she did look noticeably thin and frail.

Tributes to Catherine have been pouring in over the weekend.

Macaulay Culkin, who played her son in “Home Alone”, said, quote, “Mama.  I thought we had time.  I wanted more.  I wanted to sit in a chair next to you.  I heard you but I had so much more to say.  I love you.  I’ll see you later.”

Eugene Levy, who worked with Catherine for over 50 years, from “SCTV” to “Schitt’s Creek”, said, quote, “I cherished our working relationship, but most of all our friendship.  And I will miss her.”

SOURCE: NY Post