“Diff’rent Strokes” star Gary Coleman was no longer married to the woman who gave doctors the go-ahead to pull the plug on his life support, his lawyer said yesterday.
But the hospital said his ex, Shannon Price, had the authority to do so.
Coleman, 42, and Price, 24, legally split on Aug. 12, 2008, nearly two years before he fell in their Utah home last week and suffered a brain hemorrhage that put him in a coma, according to court papers obtained by “Entertainment Tonight.”
“Initially, it concerned me, because it seemed like it [the hospitalization] was a pretty short-term thing,” Coleman’s lawyer, Randy Kester, told The Post, noting that the actor’s death “happened so quickly.”
A statement from the Utah hospital where Coleman died last Friday said he’d completed an advanced directive that granted Price permission to make medical decisions for him.
“An advanced health-care directive remains in effect regardless of a patient’s marital status, unless modified by the patient,” the statement said.
The new developments emerged as officials released a 911 tape in which an emergency dispatcher had to plead with Price to help Coleman.
Price told the dispatcher that Coleman fell and hit his head in the basement of their Santaquin home and that there was “blood everywhere.”
Although she said her “husband” was conscious, she appeared reluctant to go downstairs and check on him again until help arrived.
“I’m gagging. I’ve got blood on myself,” Price told the dispatcher. “I can’t deal.”