Tragedy struck Priscilla Presley on January 12, 2023, when her daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, died aged 54 after suffering a cardiac arrest caused by a small bowel obstruction from a previous gastric bypass surgery. The 80-year-old, who was married to Elvis Presley from 1967 to 1973, still struggles with the loss of her daughter, and has recalled her heartbreaking final moments in her new memoir Softly, as I Leave You: Life After Elvis. “It was the second saddest day of my life, other than losing Elvis,” Priscilla told People. “It took a long time to come to terms with the fact that Lisa was gone.”
Lisa Marie was found unresponsive at home by her ex-husband, Danny Keough, who called Priscilla and had her meet them at the hospital. “We were there all day long,” Priscilla said. “Lisa really wasn’t breathing, so she was on the ventilator. For hours we were there waiting, hoping and praying until the doctor came in and said, ‘Priscilla, I’m so sorry, she’s gone.’ We just couldn’t believe it – didn’t want to believe it. It was hard on all of us; it still is.”
In an excerpt from her memoir shared with the publication, Priscilla recounted Lisa Marie’s final moments in emotional detail. “I knew from the first moment I walked into Lisa’s hospital room that she was already gone,” she wrote. “She was hooked to a machine that was breathing for her, and she had a heartbeat. There was little brain activity. Her spirit, always so vital, wasn’t there. Riley later told us that while she was still on her flight, she had felt her mother’s spirit pass. But none of us was ready to give up yet.
“A nurse came to tell me that [my son] Navarone had arrived. I asked her to bring him into the room. Then we began to wait. Finally, Navarone voiced the question we were all thinking. How long until we knew if she was going to start breathing again? The doctor said it could be two minutes. Or it could be two days. After two hours, Navarone couldn’t take the anxiety any longer. He left to go into the other room.”
Priscilla continued: “The others were allowed in one or two at a time. Danny and I remained, holding Lisa’s hands, stroking her face, telling her we loved her. At some point, I remember that a nurse took me into the other room, where [my cousin] Ivy stepped forward to meet me. The nurse told Ivy to see to it that I ate and drank something. My cousin took my arm, but then we heard an emergency alarm from Lisa’s room.
© Getty Images“It was a code blue; Lisa’s heart had stopped. As I started back to my daughter, the nurse detained Ivy and spoke to her in a whisper. The next thing I remember is the doctor talking to me. He asked me what I wanted him to do. They had restarted Lisa’s heart, but there was no guarantee it would keep beating. I asked the doctor, ‘What kind of life will she have if we keep her on that machine?’
© Getty Images“He looked at me with compassion and shook his head. ‘No quality of life at all.’ I thought about my girl, my wild, rebellious, passionate girl, lying in a vegetative state for the rest of her life. I said what I had to. ‘Take her off the machine, Doctor.’ My voice was barely above a whisper. Nodding toward me, she told Ivy, ‘Come with us. I need you to stand right behind her. She’s going to fall, and you will need to catch her.’
© Getty Images“The nurse began to unhook the apparatus that kept Lisa’s chest rising and falling. I looked at Danny and said, ‘We have to tell them, Danny. So, they can say goodbye.’ But as I began to move toward the door, I heard Danny’s anguished cry. ‘No, Nona! Don’t go! We can’t leave her all alone!’ It was unbearable. I began to sob. I don’t remember falling. I know that Ivy caught me. After that, everything went dark. I can’t remember. I don’t want to remember.”
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