Shannen Doherty’s Doctor Reveals Her Last Moments
The “Charmed” star died on July 13, at the age of 53, after a long battle with breast cancer.
Doctor Piro told People, “She was in a place where she was very comfortable and sleeping and transitioning.” Dr. Piro added that Shannon was “surrounded by some of her very close friends.”
Shannen and Dr. Piro grew to be great friends. Dr. Piro is the President and CEO of Cedars-Sinai affiliate The Angeles Clinic and Research Institute in Los Angeles and he told PEOPLE “Sometimes that just happens. The vibe is right and you understand each other and you understand what the thoughts mean as if you had known each other for years before that meeting. That’s what it was like for us when we first met, and it was that way all the way until the very last.”
A lot of people will have a bout with cancer and Shannon talked about the best way to find the right doctor. Shannon gave the advice to locate the doctor who listens to what you have to say. She advised not to settle on your doctor.
Dr. Piro felt that Doherty was extremely smart and focused on her whole health. He told PEOPLE, “Whenever she learned some new fact or some new idea in her medical journey, she would immediately call me or forward something to me and we would discuss it and see whether it had any relevance to her scenario and where it would fit into the scheme of things for her. I was always amazed with the way in which she could separate her own emotions about being so young and being on such a difficult journey from the fact-finding part. She was so razor focused and level-headed about those things.”
Shannon had no plans of giving up to cancer. Dr Piro said, “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.”
In Shannon’s June 24th podcast Let’s Be Clear with Shannen Doherty she decided to restart her chemotherapy even thought her stage IV cancer reached her bones.
“We kept going until we couldn’t go any more,” Dr. Piro said. “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 though, even though her physical condition had taken a bit of a downturn. And so we did.”
In the last month, it became apparent, Shannen’s time was running out. She continued to fight and hope until the end.
Dr. Piro closed the PEOPLE interview by saying Shannen always treated others with kindness. “This tremendous love for life was inspired by a love for people and a love for being treated well. And I think that that grew out of being in public eye from a very young age and feeling misunderstood most of her life. She would want us to live our lives as strongly as we can, committed to our convictions and to not allow others to label you or to misrepresent you and stop you from living your best life.”