Car hits tree after driver has apparent heart attack

Stefanie Frith

A Costa Mesa woman was in critical condition Saturday after slamming

her car into a tree Saturday morning, police said.

Mary Diane Frisese, 64, was driving her Honda Accord at low speeds at

El Camino and Mendoza streets in Costa Mesa when she suffered from an

apparent heart attack around 11:13 a.m., Sgt. Frank Rudisill said. By

Saturday afternoon, Frisese was in critical condition at Hoag Hospital,

but doctors said it looked like she was going to make it, Rudisill said.

“She was driving at low speeds when we think she had the attack and

went off the road,” Rudisill said. “She ran into a large cypress tree on

the side of a house, but she must have had the brake on or was in park,

because she wasn’t going very fast.”

Rudisill said neighbors told police that after the accident, they saw

Frisese moving inside the car. By the time an officer had reached her

though, she was slumped over the steering wheel.

“An officer went out there, but the doors were locked, so he knocked

out the back window. But he still couldn’t reach her,” Rudisill said. “So

he broke the front window and found she had no pulse and wasn’t

breathing.”

Rudisill said when the paramedics arrived, they were ready to

pronounce her dead, but thought it best to let doctors handle it.

“They thought she was dead,” he said. “So I was pretty shocked when I

got the report from the hospital that she was back and her family was

there visiting.”

Rudisill added that the crash has been handed over to the traffic

division for further investigation.