flu-like symptoms. The following morning, she collapsed in her home, and was rushed to Community Hospital in El Cajon. En route, she suffered cardiac arrest, but paramedics were able to restart her heart at 9:25a.m. She was subsequently flown to the Children's Hospital of San Diego, where it was discovered she had intestinal stenosis and went into emergency surgery. She survived the surgery, but suffered another cardiac arrest while in the recovery room. Doctors performed CPR for over 30 minutes, but O'Rourke was pronounced dead at 2:43 that afternoon. O'Rourke's cause of death was ruled congenital stenosis of the intestine complicated by septic shock. Daniel Hollander, the head of gastroenterology at the University of California, Irvine Medical Center stated that O'Rourke's death was "distinctly unusual" as she lacked prior symptoms of the bowel defect: "I would have expected a lot of [digestive] difficulties throughout her life and not just to have developed a problem all of a sudden." However, Dr. Hollander further stated that it was possible for congenital bowel narrowing to cause sudden death without symptoms if an infection caused the bowel to rupture. A private funeral was held for O'Rourke on February 5 in Los Angeles, and she was entombed at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery. Filmography Film Television Accolades Awards and nominations O'Rourke was nominated for a collective six Young Artist Awards, one of which was won for her performance on the series Webster in 1985. Honors On the American Film Institute's 2005 list of "100 Movie Quotes", O'Rourke's delivery of "They're here!" in Poltergeist is ranked No. 69. On PopSugar's 2021 list of "100 Greatest Movie Quotes", O'Rourke's delivery of "They're here!" in Poltergeist'' is listed. References Sources External links 1975 births 1988 deaths 20th-century American actresses Actresses from California Actresses from San Diego American child actresses American film actresses American television actresses Burials at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery Deaths from digestive disease Deaths from sepsis People from Anaheim, California People from Big Bear Lake, California People from Lakeside, California