The former ‘Beverly Hills, 90210’ star passed away on Saturday (13.07.24) at the age of 53 following a long battle with cancer and now oncologist Dr. Lawrence D. Piro – who became a close friend of the actress throughout her ordeal – has detailed her “sad” but “beautiful” final moments.
He told People: “In the last few hours, she was in a place where she was very comfortable and sleeping and transitioning, and she was surrounded by some of her very close friends. The room was surrounded by a select group of friends that were giving her a lot of care and support. It was somber and sad, but beautiful and loving. The hardest thing about this was that she wasn’t ready to leave because she loved life.”
The medic noted that the ‘Charmed’ actress – who was initially diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015 and was in remission by 2017 before learning in 2020 that it had returned and spread to her bones – never wanted to consider “any other alternative” than beating cancer and that by the time of their last conversation, she was still “processing” that things had taken a turn.
He added: “In her mind, she was not wanting to consider any other alternative than ‘we were beating this and we were engaged in life. We didn’t really talk about what that meant in terms of additional time for her because that just wasn’t how she operated. She wanted to live every day, not as if it were her last day, but as if it were the beginning of a whole another chapter for her.
“We kept going until we couldn’t go any more. The last conversation that we had, she was in the process of realizing that things had taken a pretty significant turn. The conversation was about love and support and caring and still fighting through. She wanted to continue to take treatment and fight through, even though her physical condition had taken a bit of a downturn. And so we did.”
The star underwent surgery towards the end of last year to remove a brain tumour she had named Bob and insisted at the time that she head worked tirelessly to regain her motor skills and declared herself as “not a quitter”.
She charted her health battles on the podcast ‘Let’s Be Clear with Shannen Doherty’ and insisted as late as November 2023 that she “wasn’t done” with living.
She said: “I’m not done with living. I’m not done with loving. I’m not done with creating. I’m not done with hopefully changing things for the better.
“I’m just not — I’m not done.”
