The Home and Away actress Jessica Falkholt has tragically died after she had been the sole survivor of a horrific car crash on Boxing Day.
The 28-year-old actress had her life support machine switched off on Thursday night, weeks after the accident on the New South Wales south coast that also killed her parents and sister.
Falkholt had been in a medically induced coma in the Intensive Care Unit at St. George Hospital in Sydney where her family had been keeping a bedside vigil since the accident.
Falkholt, who had just starred in her first major role as the title character in the upcoming feature film Harmony, previously played the role of Hope Morrison in 16 episodes of the popular Australian soap opera in 2016.
Falkholt and her 21-year-old sister Annabelle had been pulled from the wreckage after their car collided with a four-wheel-drive vehicle near Ulladulla on Boxing Day.
Her parents Lars, 69 and Vivian, 60, died at the scene while Annabelle was flown to hospital in a critical condition before dying from her injuries on 29 December.
The three were buried at a service attended by hundreds of family and friends at St Mary’s Catholic Church at Concord in western Sydney on Wednesday.
Members of Falkholt’s friends and family had stayed with Jessica during and after the funeral in a bid to offer her support.
“We made sure Jess wasn’t alone and her friends were able to be there with her,’ a relative of Jessica’s told Daily Mail Australia.
‘Everything we have done and every decision we have made has been done with the advice of doctors and social workers. No decision is made without Jessica’s wants in mind.
“Jess was a very private girl and while we’re thankful for public thoughts and interest, we are just trying to honor what she’d want.”
The fatal crash took place on the Princes Highway on Boxing Day when the Falkholts were travelling home to the suburb of Ryde after attending Christmas celebrations.
The crash also took the life of the driver of the other vehicle, 50-year-old Craig Anthony Whitall, who had a string of past driving offences.
Whitall was reportedly driving home from a methadone clinic in the New South Wales town of Nowra when the crash took place.
Police and coroners are investigating whether drugs had been a factor at the time of the crash, among other contributing factors.
