Late singer Coco Lee’s mum tried acupuncture as a last-ditch attempt to save her life

HONG KONG – Hong Kong-American pop diva Coco Lee’s mother did not give up on her daughter’s chances of survival even when the situation looked hopeless.

This was disclosed by Lee’s elder sister Nancy in an interview with Hong Kong’s Ming Pao Weekly.

Lee, 48, died in a Hong Kong hospital on Wednesday

following a suicide attempt on Sunday.

Nancy, 51, told the magazine that their mother, 86, had been staying at Lee’s bedside after the incident.

“My mother is a very good traditional Chinese medicine practitioner. She hoped to make a final effort after the doctor said my sister was brain-dead. My mother refused to give up and tried acupuncture on her head.”

Nancy added that the doctors told them to give up as there was no chance of reviving Lee.

“I told them my mother lost her husband at the age of 40 and Coco was born at that time. My mother worked very hard to bring us up. I asked the doctor to give my mother and Coco a chance, even if there was only a slim chance.”

Nancy told Taiwan’s Next Apple News that Lee did not attempt suicide by cutting her wrists, as claimed by some media reports, and urged the public not to speculate on her cause of death.

She also refuted a claim made by music composer Jae Chong on social media that Lee had been battling cancer at the time of her death.

“Her breast cancer was in remission,” Nancy said, according to Taiwan’s United Daily News.

She added that her sister was optimistic until six months ago, when she succumbed to depression.

Hong Kong’s Ming Pao Daily News quoted Nancy as saying that the family is tentatively planning to hold Lee’s funeral in August. Under Hong Kong’s regulations, an autopsy is required to determine the cause of death as the singer did not die of an illness, and the process may take four to six weeks.

Sources told Taiwan’s Mirror Media that Lee’s husband, Canadian businessman Bruce Rockowitz, who is in his mid-60s, is flying to Hong Kong.

The couple have reportedly been separated for more than two years and were undergoing divorce proceedings.

The singer was said to have undergone in-vitro fertilisation nine times over their 12-year marriage, as she wanted to have her own children. Rockowitz has two daughters from his first marriage.