Teri Garr’s Cause Of Death And Symptoms That Led To Her Diagnosis

Teri Garr, the actor who died Tuesday at 79, was known for her comedic roles, but the star had been dealing with serious health problems for decades.

Garr’s cause of death was complications from multiple sclerosis, her publicist and friend Heidi Schaeffer told NBC News.

She’d also suffered a brain aneurysm in 2006 that left her in a coma for a week.

Here’s what the actor — who delivered memorable performances in “Young Frankenstein,” “Tootsie” and “Mr. Mom” — said about her health:

Multiple sclerosis

This nervous system disease affects the brain and spinal cord, leading to damage that affects how the brain communicates with the body, according to the National Library of Medicine.

Women are more likely to get the autoimmune disorder, with warning signs that usually begin between the ages of 20 and 40, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke explains.

Garr said she had vague symptoms that started around the time she was filming “Tootsie” in the early 1980s — almost two decades before she was diagnosed.

“I would run, jog in the park, and I just started tripping. It was just like my toe — I would start to trip, and then that would go away. Then I would get some tingling in my arm,” she told CNN’s Larry King in 2002 when she first went public with her condition.

“It’s very hard to get a diagnosis and it’s very hard to find out — difficult to find out if you have this, because the things come and go and the things are subtle.”

She started to walk with a limp and was told she might have an orthopedic problem or a pinched nerve. Garr went to 11 doctors before she was finally diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1999, she told Closer Weekly.

The exact cause is a mystery, but genetic susceptibility, infectious disease and environmental factors may trigger the disease, according to The National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

It lists symptoms including:

• fatigue
• memory difficulties
• mood changes
• mobility issues
• numbness
• pain
• tingling
• vision impairment

Garr walked with a brace on her leg to treat her limp and received injections of a drug to slow the progression of the disease. She had minimal movement in her right hand and her treatment included steroids, which caused her to gain weight, the Los Angeles Times reported.

There’s no cure for multiple sclerosis, but several therapies are approved to manage it.

People with multiple sclerosis may have double the risk of dying early compared to their healthy peers, a study in Neurology found.

Complications from multiple sclerosis that can lead to death include respiratory and urinary tract–related infection, and aspiration pneumonia from inhaling body fluid or other objects into the lungs, researchers note.

Garr’s family has not specified the MS complications that led to her death.

Brain aneurysm

In December 2006, Garr suffered a brain aneurysm that almost killed her.

“I went to sleep to take a nap and my daughter couldn’t wake me up. So, thank god she called 9-1-1 and they rushed me to the hospital,” the actor told CNN in 2008.

“They drilled a hole in my head and wrapped a coil around my brain so it wouldn’t bleed anymore,” she added in an interview with the Los Angeles Times that same year.

Garr was in a coma for a week, then underwent rehabilitation for two months. “I had to learn to walk again, talk again, think again,” she said, noting she had to go to physical, occupational and voice therapy.

A brain aneurysm is a bulge or “ballooning” in the weak spot of an artery wall that — if it grows large — can burst and cause life-threatening bleeding, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Brain aneurysms, also called cerebral aneurysms, affect about 5% of the population, the American Heart Association noted. 

High blood pressure, heavy lifting or straining, strong emotions like anger, and certain medications such as blood thinners can increase the chance for an aneurysm to rupture, according to the American Stroke Association.

Once an aneurysm bleeds, there’s a 40% chance of death, it notes.

Aneurysm coiling involves guiding thin metal wires to the site of the aneurysm, where they coil into a mesh ball, the National Library of Medicine explains. Blood clots then form around the coil, sealing off the aneurysm and preventing bleeding.

Garr called all her health problems an “odd gift.”

“It makes you stop and settle down and focus,” she told Closer Weekly.